“Not a word,” Dare said, glaring at his brothers. He shouldn’t have kissed her in front of them, but they’d already seen them all up against each other and Dare hadn’t been able to resist having just one more taste. It turned out having a little bit of something good in your life just made you want more. “What’s going on?” Dare asked as Phoenix held up his hands as if in surrender and Caine closed the door behind Haven. Now Dare understood the first item on her list a helluva lot better, didn’t he? Have your own kitchen.
Jesus. She shouldn’t have to wish for something that talent demanded be nurtured.
“We put out the word about the hardware we want to get rid of like we talked about,” Phoenix said, meaning the guns they’d acquired from the Church Gang a few weeks before.
“Yeah,” Dare said, the thought of Haven’s list making him regret that they’d been interrupted before he could confess to knowing about it. Maybe it was just as well he hadn’t opened his mouth any more than he already had, though. Because that woman extracted all of his self-control every time they were within five feet of each other. “Any word?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Phoenix said, exchanging dark looks with Caine.
“Shit, what is it?” Dare asked, shaking off all thoughts of Haven and getting his mind back in the game.
“We have an interested buyer in Baltimore,” Phoenix said. “A gang called the Iron Cross, one of the top contenders to fill the Church Gang’s shoes in the city. I need to know how to respond here, because if I tell them they’re no longer available, that may impact our ability to sell elsewhere. But if I ignore or say we won’t sell to them, then we risk making an enemy.” Caine nodded, a scowl on his face.
“Fuck,” Dare said, leaning his hip against the desk. “What do we know about them?”
“Not a lot yet,” Caine said, “but the guys at Hard Ink might be able to find out more. Didn’t they have some sort of gang contact?”
Dare nodded. “They do. And I think it’s time to call in some favors.” He rounded the desk and took a seat, and Phoenix and Caine sat in the chairs on the other side of the desk.
From weeks of working together, Dare had Nick Rixey, the informal leader of the team of elite Army vets, on speed dial. “This is Rixey,” came a voice through the speakerphone.
“Nick, it’s Dare. How are you?”
“Dare,” Nick said, his tone indicating he was pleased. “Things are good. Thanks in part to you and your men.”
“Glad to hear it. Speaking of which, I’ve got Phoenix and Caine here with me. You’re on speaker.” The three of them exchanged greetings.
“So I take it this isn’t a social call,” Nick said.
“Wish it was,” Dare said. “But we find ourselves in need of your help.”
“Name it.” The words were spoken without hesitation, and Dare found himself respecting Nick even more than he already did. Any man who kept his word so unequivocally was a good friend to have in his book.
“The rest of your guys around?” Dare asked. “If so, it might be easier to put me on speaker on your end, too.”
“Give me five and I’ll call you right back,” Nick said. They hung up.
“Good to see they’re keeping their word,” Phoenix said, a dark shadow crossing his normally carefree face. But given that his cousin had died protecting the folks at Hard Ink not even a month before, Dare totally understood why that would be so important to Phoenix.
Dare’s phone rang, and Nick explained he had everyone present. “What’s going on?”
“A couple of things,” Dare said. “First, I’ve got some photographs I was hoping Marz could run through his various programs for further identification and information.”
Marz was their computer tech and had capabilities acquiring information from the web that Dare couldn’t hope to replicate. The guy’s voice came down the line. “That’s not a problem. Send me whatever you want me to search.”
“If you have their names, can you also find out things like what kinds of vehicles they own?” Dare asked.
“Probably,” Marz said. “DMV records are likely a piece of cake next to the shit we’ve had to access the past few weeks. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Thanks,” Dare said. Having that kind of information would give them other ways to be on the lookout for Haven’s father and associates. “We also have a developing situation that might complicate things in the city. We’re in the midst of finding a buyer for the hardware we acquired, and we’ve got interest from a gang called the Iron Cross in Baltimore. We were hoping you could look into them. We’re not interested in dropping that kinda heat so close to home, but we need to know more about them before we respond.”
“We’ve got a contact at the city’s gang task force and some resources on hand about known Maryland gangs. That’s not a problem,” Nick said. “Do you expect to do an in-person meeting with them?”
Dare met his brothers’ gazes across the table. “Haven’t gotten that far,” Phoenix said.
“Well, let us know if you need backup if you do. Things are volatile with the Church Gang out of the picture, so we want to keep our finger on the pulse of that situation anyway.”
Dare nodded, this conversation confirming it’d been the right call to bring the Hard Ink team in on all of this. “I appreciate that, Nick. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Good,” Nick said. “Now I have a question for you. Ike said the races were starting back up next weekend. We wondered if you might be up for a visit. Be nice to get out of the city for a few hours.”
“Funny you should ask,” Dare said. “Since I planned to invite you myself. Though I was hoping you might provide undercover security for the event. Turns out the two women you rescued, Haven and Cora, have a reward out on their heads for a hundred Gs. So we could use the extra eyes to make sure no one’s in the crowd we don’t want there. We’ve got space for all of you to stay the night.”
There was some murmuring in the background of the call, and then Nick’s voice came through loud and clear. “Consider it done.”
When the call ended, Dare shot off the photographs to Marz.
“Well, that went about as good as could’ve been expected,” Caine said, his pale eyes like ice.
“Agreed,” Dare said. “Now we wait to see what information they’re able to find.”
HAVEN HAD PROMISED herself no more holing away in her room, so when her full belly left her sleepy in the late morning, she changed into a tank top and a pair of shorts and took a blanket out into the backyard while Cora headed over to the chop shop to hang with Phoenix, Jeb, and Blake. Haven didn’t mind being alone, since she knew she was likely to fall asleep. It was a gorgeous, warm May day, and the views of the mountains and the valley were stunning from the Raven clubhouse. The perfect recipe for a nap that would pass the time until she and Dare could finally talk.
She found a flat spot with a particularly good view under the long, swaying branches of a weeping willow tree to spread out her blanket, and then she did something that not too long ago would’ve been unthinkable—she lay down and closed her eyes right there in the grass. Her father’s house had a big built-in pool in the backyard, but Haven hadn’t used it since she’d been a kid. No way could she wear a swimsuit and bare that much of her body in that house. Ever. Here, though? She didn’t have a single concern that she wouldn’t be safe.
With the breeze blowing and the birds singing and the distant strains of music coming from somewhere, Haven fell asleep quickly. When she woke up, she wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but she was absolutely ecstatic about having done something so simple as laying out in the sun to take a nap. Stretching pulled a long, moaning yawn out of her and—
“Good nap?” came a man’s voice from behind her.
She whirled onto her elbows. Dare. Sitting in his jeans, black T-shirt, and cut with his knees up and his back against the willow’s trunk.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
The look he gave her turned the sleepy warmth flowing through her body into something darker, something needier, something hotter. “Watching you sleep,” he said. He gave his bottom lip a long, slow flick of his tongue.
Haven was suddenly ravenous for a taste of that tongue, that lip, that harsh, masculine mouth. “Why?” she breathed.
“’Cause I don’t seem to be able to stay away from you, no matter how hard I try.” His blunt honesty did nothing to rein in her arousal. Instead, his declarations made her heart race and her hips press instinctively toward the ground, seeking a friction that wasn’t there but that she wanted desperately.
What would it be like to give such blunt honesty in return? Goose bumps erupted over her warm skin the moment she decided to find out. “What if I don’t want you to stay away?”
He looked away for a long moment, and Haven worried she’d said the wrong thing, but when he looked back, the battle playing out on his expression told her he’d liked what she’d said. A lot.
“There’s a lake on the compound not too far from here,” he said, his voice like gravel, his gaze running over her body. Then his eyes returned to hers. “Any chance you’d like to go for a swim?”
She grinned. “Really? That would be awesome.” She pushed up to sit on folded legs. “Oh, except I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“You could wear what you have on,” he said, his gaze dragging over her again. “And take other clothes to change into.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” Haven said. “Let me just grab some things.” Up in her room, her gaze snagged on her notebook while she grabbed other clothes. Going skinny dipping was on her list, but no way she could do that in broad daylight with Dare. Could she? No. No, she wasn’t that brave. Not yet. Maybe never. She grabbed some clothes and a towel from the bathroom and met Dare out in front, where he was waiting for her on his bike.
He stuffed her things in a compartment on the side of his bike and gave her a hand on. “Put this on,” he said, handing her a helmet.
“Why don’t you wear one?” she asked as she slipped it on and put down the visor.
He grinned over his shoulder. “I do on longer trips, but, you know, I like to flaunt the rules and live dangerously, too.”
The words were innocent enough, but the echo of what she’d written in her notebook made her stomach flip-flop.
“Ready?” he asked.
She wrapped her arms around his stomach and rested her head on his shoulder. “Yes.”
Haven hadn’t been sure she’d get to ride with Dare again, so being on the back of his bike made her almost giddy with happiness. They left the clubhouse heading in a different direction than they’d ridden the other day, and within a few minutes arrived at an appealingly rugged cabin nestled in the woods. Clouds blocked the sun, casting the house in shade, but it didn’t detract from the secluded peacefulness of the wooded lot.
Dare eased the bike to a stop in the driveway and kicked out his boots to steady them. “Just need to grab some things,” he said, helping her off the bike. “Come on in.”
“This is your place?” she asked, her eyes drinking in the almost picturesque setting, the rustic log façade, the separate garage that sat at the back of the lot.
“Yeah,” he said, leading them up onto the small porch. He unlocked the door and gestured for her to go first.
Haven wasn’t sure what to expect of the place where Dare lived. She so associated him with the clubhouse that she’d never imagined him in his own space. The interior was all warm, rough-hewn wood, limestone accents, and earth tones. It was masculine but inviting, even though there wasn’t a lot that personalized the space. “This is really nice,” she said. Much of the first floor was open, and her gaze went right to the kitchen. Drawn by the granite counters, she headed there, her hands smoothing over the cool surface.
Turning, she found Dare watching her take in his place, and it brought heat to her cheeks.
“Make yourself at home,” he said, pointing to the stairs. “I’ll just be a minute.”
She nodded and watched him jog up the steps. And good God did he do all kinds of justice to a pair of jeans.
With furniture situated around the big stone fireplace, the living room drew her in next. An overstuffed recliner sat next to the front window, an old fleece throw draped over the back. It looked like the kind of thing you could curl up in with a book or for a nap, and Haven couldn’t help but try it out.
Sitting down, she reached for the reclining mechanism that had her laying back and stretching out. Despite the fact that it wasn’t much to look at, it was quite possibly the most comfortable chair she’d ever sat on in her life. She burrowed into the soft fabric and turned her body to peer out the window, the position giving her the most relaxing view of swaying trees and graying sky.
God, why did she feel so comfortable here? And why couldn’t she have found this fundamental sense of rightness with someone she could keep—or who would keep her?
The question made her think of her list, and that made her wonder if she’d find another man with whom she could imagine making all those experiences come true. What if she never found someone like Dare again? What if this—he—was her chance to really live?
Lying there in his home, Haven had the wildest notion to grab onto Dare while she had him, even if she couldn’t keep him, even if she had to leave him behind.
Maybe she could have him now. And it seemed to her that sometimes now was all that mattered.
Footsteps sounded out from the staircase, drawing her from her thoughts.
“You look comfortable,” Dare said, humor playing around his mouth. He carried a rolled-up bundle of clothing in his hand.
“I am,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d ever leave this chair if I lived here.”
That drew a real smile out of him as he crossed the room. Bracing his hands on both armrests, he leaned over her. “Would you rather stay here?” His dark brown gaze was intense and observing, making her feel like he could see inside her. Where once the thought of that scared her, now she almost wished he could see her darkest desires. Then he’d know, and maybe he’d act on them, too. It would save her from having to say all kinds of impossible words, wouldn’t it? Even if that was the chicken’s way out . . .
Haven shook her head. No way was she giving up the chance to see more of Dare’s body. “Nope. I’m still happy to go.”
Boxing her in, Dare leaned down and got right up in her space. “Whatever you want,” he said, his lips just inches from hers.
I want you. Her brain taunted her to say it, to just put it out there and see how he’d react. To maybe even tell him she’d like him to help her make a whole list of to-dos come true before she had to go. While she knew she was safe and that he would treat her right. The thought made goose bumps spring up all over her skin.
She tipped up her chin, offering her lips. “You sure about that?” she asked, the brazenness of the question nearly stealing her breath.
“Oh, Haven,” he said, “you have no idea what I’d be willing to do for you if you wanted me to.”
Her heart was suddenly flying, his words filled with so much seductive promise that Haven could barely believe she’d heard him right. She grappled for how to respond and wondered if this was her moment to just lay everything out there.
“Do you want my confession now, or do you want to just hang for now and talk later?” he asked.
The question threatened to ground her in reality, and she didn’t want that yet. She didn’t want problems or reasons why wanting Dare was a risk she shouldn’t—couldn’t—take. She still wanted the fantasy, the heady promise she felt when she was with him, the feeling that being with him was so right there was no way it could ever end. “Talk later,” she said.
Dare nodded. “Then let’s ride.”