Chapter 13
Now that it was time to go, she didn’t want to leave.
Chaos had ensued after she’d exposed the beads from her necklace caught in the rolls of Paul’s pant legs. Ryder had grabbed him; the commander had been called in, and Nick had been nabbed at the same time. They were on the lookout for the last man involved – if there was still one. The trouble was, after all that, when she was so close to getting answers, she’d been ushered out to a jeep.
Now she sat in the passenger seat, hating the memories flying at her from the last time she’d been in a jeep. A man had been badly injured while driving her. Now two other men had been detained and were to be questioned. And that still didn’t mean their actions made them the sniper.
But now she would be driven to the airport to board a plane. Since she hated to say good-bye, she wanted to stay and see this thing through. Easton stood beside her. “I don’t want to leave now,” she said in a mutinous tone of voice. “But yet I do.”
“How did you know? How did you even think to look for the beads in his clothing?”
“Because beads were on the floor where he’d been standing and where the assailant had been kept in that tent. Which meant he had my necklace.”
“But it could’ve been accidental that the beads caught in his clothing.”
She shot him a look. “Accidental when? When he was eating? Sleeping? Training? Or when he went to empty Harry’s pocket in a hurry, and the beads went flying?” She settled back in her seat. “It was a matter of getting the right poke to make him show himself.”
Easton nodded. “You’re good at that.”
She sank back into her seat. “Okay, so maybe I’m not a nice person all the time. But I try to come from the heart.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I still want to leave now, but I need answers to so many questions.”
“You’ll get as many as we can get,” Easton said. “Just because you’re leaving doesn’t mean we’ll cut you out of the loop.”
She shot him a look and then turned and closed her eyes again. “Of course it does. It will be handled internally, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“I will follow up with you.”
She turned to him. “Promise?” His fathomless gaze held a warm glint that set her heart pounding.
“Absolutely.”
She snorted. “You’re just saying that.”
“Hey, I always follow through on my promises.”
“I hope so. And you can spend a few days with me when you’re back in town.”
He went silent.
“You do that a lot.”
“I do what?”
“Go very quiet when you’re not sure what to say.”
“Well, I haven’t been propositioned by a woman very many times in my life,” he admitted.
She snickered. “But how else are we to carry on a relationship if we don’t get to see each other? So, when you get some days off, you can visit and spend some time with me.”
He stared at her. “Maybe you should be the one coming to spend time with me,” he snapped.
“Accepted.”
He turned and glared at her. “Did you do that on purpose?”
She shrugged. “Sometimes I have to do a little bit more poking than I would normally do to get what I want.” She smiled. “It’s who I am. I go after what I want.”
He stared at her.
Her smiled widened. “Yes, I want you.”
A red color washed all over his face.
She watched in fascination, her hand diving in her pocket to pull out a small camera. Before he had a chance to argue, she took several photographs. He grabbed her hand, but she snatched away the camera so he ended up just holding hers.
“Perfect.” She took a picture of his hands. “I promise I won’t sell it or do anything with these images. They’re for my own personal collection.
“A picture of my hands?”
She gave him a smile. “I’ll send this one to you if it turns out good. Then you’ll see what I mean.”
He shook his head. “You are something.”
“I am, indeed.”
When he released her hand, she turned the camera around backward so she could see the pictures she had just taken. One with his face was decent, not perfect, but it was okay. She got rid of the other one. And then she looked at the one with him holding her hand. She stared at it for a long moment, and then she smiled.
Quietly she said, “When you look at that, what do you see?”
He frowned at her, picked up the camera and looked at it. “I see my hand holding your hand,” he said briskly. “Nothing special.”
He went to delete it, but she snatched the camera out of his hand. “No! You can’t do that. This picture is special.”
He stared at her in surprise. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s so much more than nothing. It’s perfect.” She was so happy with the image that she just stared at it, seeing the same strength and caring she’d seen that first day.
Just then the driver came back out. She realized it was Devlin. “Oh, no. You can’t drive,” she exclaimed.
Puzzled, Devlin turned to look at her. “Why is that?”
“What if you get shot?”
Devlin smiled. “Would you rather Easton drove?”
She frowned. “That’s not fair.”
He grinned. “Sure, it is. It’ll be the four of us. So who is it you want to risk his life?” He got out and said, “Easton, you drive.”
Before Easton had a chance to get behind the wheel, she scrambled to the driver’s seat, sat down and turned on the engine. “There. Now if anybody shoots at the driver I will be the one who gets shot.”
The men stared at her, turned to look at each other, and Easton frowned. “I’m driving.”
She shook her head. “Can’t have that. You might get hurt.”
He pulled his hands into fists and put them on his hips. “So, what if, this time, they don’t get the range right and shoot the passenger instead of the driver?”
She bounced up so she stood on the open jeep front step and stared at him. “Then you might get shot.”
He raised his hands. “Exactly.”
She shook her head, bounced back down onto the seat. “Then I’ll take myself.” At that she hit the gas, driving away as fast as she could from the men, leaving them standing in the dust.
She drove straight out of the camp, remembering the way from the last time. She could see the men shouting at her from behind. But she was too busy laughing at herself. No way would she let anyone else get hurt. As soon as she was on the main road heading toward the airstrip, she checked the jeep for any music, but, of course, there wasn’t any.
It wasn’t a long drive. She settled back, loving the feel of the fresh air and the sunshine. It was late in the day, and the sun was setting. There was something magical about it.
There was also something very freeing about having left the four men in the dust. They probably wouldn’t appreciate it, but she thought it was pretty damn funny. She’d pay for that one in time, she knew. No way Easton wouldn’t get back at her for this. But she really couldn’t stand to let the men get hurt.
The dry roads kicked up a cloud of dust behind her. Nothing to worry about though because at least it would stop anybody from following her too closely. She stared at the trees, watching the tree line as it approached. Close to here was where she’d been shot at the last time.
She couldn’t see anything suspicious, but subconsciously she hit the gas and drove faster. She stared at the road ahead, then glanced at the trees one last time and caught a glint of something shiny.
Hearing something hit the vehicle, instinctively she ducked down. She was barely above the steering wheel, so she could see just over the hood of the jeep through the windshield. She flattened the gas pedal and drove as fast as she could. She had no idea how much farther it was, but she couldn’t get there fast enough.
Without any more shots fired, she figured the sniper had missed his opportunity. She thought she heard something else in the background, like backfiring from a vehicle, but it wasn’t hers. Just as the new thought threw ice through her veins, she realized he was probably giving chase. But she couldn’t push the gas pedal any harder. The engine was going flat-out.
The airstrip was up ahead. She pulled in amid a cloud of dust, raced past the couple men standing around, waiting at the plane, and tried to dart inside the aircraft. She was shaking so hard. One of the men inside stopped her. With her teeth chattering, she said, “Sniper.”
The men pulled their weapons and nudged her inside.
“Be careful,” she cried out peering around the corner. “He shot my driver last time.”
The men nodded. “Any idea where?”
“Five minutes down the road where I was shot at the first time.” She could barely keep her mind still. She walked deeper into the plane barely noting the seats as she paced.
She pivoted. And came up against a hard chest. She was grabbed and lifted.
Instinctively she opened her mouth to scream.
Only to find a hot passionate mouth sealing the scream inside. Easton. Somehow. But she wouldn’t argue with the fates. She threw her arms around him and kissed him back.
When he finally withdrew, she whimpered and tried to remember … “Another sniper. Another sniper shot at me,” she babbled.
“We heard. Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “He hit the jeep.” She turned to Devlin. “Will they get mad at me for the bullet wound in the jeep?”
Devlin never cracked a smile. “No, they won’t be upset at a bullet wound in the jeep.” Then he gave her a gentle smile. “They are practically used to it.”
She turned back to Easton, her hands on the side of his face and shook his head. “I thought you were looking after me.”
He stared at her. “I would have if you hadn’t raced off, trying to protect me.”
She gave him a smug smile. “But it worked. You realize, if you’d been driving, you would’ve been hit,” she exclaimed. “How absolutely horrible.” She wrapped her arms tight around his neck again and held him close.
*
Easton clutched her to him. “I could smack you for racing off like that,” he murmured against her hair.
In response, her arms just closed tighter around his neck. He shot a gaze at Devlin who had retreated to speak with a man standing by the plane.
“Thank God you’re safe,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “You got that backward. Thank God you’re safe.”
He had to admit she might’ve been right. If he’d been driving, it was quite possible he’d have been shot. He picked her up in his arms and turned and sat down in the airplane seat with her tucked in his lap. He held her close against him. He was shaking inside, and she was shaking all over. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
She shook her head, her face buried against his neck. He smiled and tucked her closer.
After a few minutes, Devlin sat down beside him. “Summer, can you tell us what happened?”
She raised her head, leaned over and poked him in the chest. “I just saved you. That’s what happened.”
Devlin gave her a look of astonishment. “What?”
“If you had been driving, you could be dead right now.” She gave him a nod. “So, with me driving and being much smaller than you guys, I saved your life.” She turned on Easton and poked his chest. “Yours too.”
The two men looked at each other and then at her. Easton said, “It’s possible we might’ve been shot at, but that’s no guarantee we would have been injured.”
“I suppose you’re just so good you can dodge a bullet too, right?” She rolled her eyes and curled up against Easton. “Give it up, Easton. You owe me one.”
He chuckled. “Okay, fine. I owe you one. At least maybe that’s the easiest answer here.”
She snorted. “You can’t just hand over wins like that. You have to fight for what you want.” She nestled in deeper. “And right now I don’t want to move. I’m so tired.”
Easton stared at Devlin.
Devlin said to him, “Bet you don’t even know what hit you.”
“No, I don’t,” she whispered, mistakenly answering the question directed at Easton.
Easton glanced down, and, in just seconds, her breathing had deepened, going from bright and lively to exhausted and asleep like a two-year-old. “I’ve never seen anything like her.” He waited for her to say something, but she was out already.
“And maybe that’s not a bad thing. Everything else you’ve seen out there wasn’t right for you. Maybe this is.”
“This is chaos,” Easton protested. “I like peace and quiet and calm and serenity.”
“This is excitement and passion,” Devlin corrected. “This is life. This package comes with so much exuberance. Even the way she talks trips you up. She makes you stop and think. Her whole view on life is completely upside down.”
“You mean completely backward,” Easton corrected. But he was smiling. And he was smiling inside because of all the things Devlin had said. That spark, that passion inside her was something that really intrigued Easton. Most people were polite and calm; they laughed at jokes but didn’t get exuberant, over the top, like she did. He didn’t know if it would be wearing over the long-term. But it wasn’t fake. It was just a huge part of who she was. He didn’t think it could wear off.
He lived a quiet life. The guys had been talking to him, telling him to get out, get a girlfriend and live it up a little bit. But he wasn’t sure that living it up would be a good thing.
“When you find her, you really find her,” Devlin said with a smile.
“Hell, I didn’t find anything. She pretty well just passed out right in front of me.” Then remembered their first meeting where her camera had smacked him across his face.
“She’s such a mix,” Devlin said. “Fascinating woman.”
“She is. I just don’t know what I’ve got here.”
Devlin looked down at the armload sitting in his friend’s lap beside him and said, “What you’ve got is an armful. A very special package.”
Beside them Corey stepped up and said, “You better look after her.”
Ryder chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth? And if you’re not keeping her, we wouldn’t mind a shot.”
“Don’t even use that word around me,” Easton warned.
Corey glanced at Devlin who was grinning wildly. “I’d be happy to keep her, if you don’t want her,” Corey said in a serious tone.
Easton planned to tell them to go ahead; they could have her. That was fine with him. But the words that came out of his mouth shocked him. “Like hell you will.”
He really didn’t understand what he said until the plane erupted in laughter.