Hunted (5 page)

“Jelly?”

“They call him Jelly because he eats a lot of jelly doughnuts. He’s short, about five four, and rotund—fat—but killer with a gun. I saw him shooting on the range in the back of Jason’s home. Jason made sure I saw him. I think he wanted me to know if I left he had people who could easily make me come back. Derringer is about five two but a good fighter. He apparently did a lot of street fighting. I heard the men talking about it one day while I was in the kitchen. I don’t know the other men. That is I never met them, but I know I always heard Jason batting around different names when he would tell Corbin to get some men on it. Jig, Harv, Miller…those were some of the names I heard.”

“How many do you think he’ll send?”

“I don’t know, but you and Riggs scared Jake; I could tell because if you hadn’t he wouldn’t have let me go. He’ll probably exaggerate why he couldn’t get me because he won’t want to look weak in Jason’s eyes. The weak ones don’t last. That is he makes sure they don’t keep breathing for long.”

“How does he get away with all this?”

She gave a one shoulder shrug. “Money, connections to the right people…I don’t know, but he always gets away with everything. Maybe I should just go away, Keadon. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

“No,” he tightened his hold on her. “Don’t leave me, Debbie. Stay here with me. I will keep you safe. I will protect you.”

She flattened her palm on his stomach. “All right; we’ll do it your way. But promise me you won’t get yourself killed.”

He chuckled. “Honey, I have been in war zones with tougher combatants. I won’t underestimate the enemy, but I won’t cower in fear either. Besides, they won’t know who they’re up against.”

“True. They won’t know you’re retired military.”

“And we’ll use that to our advantage.”

She turned her head and placed a soft kiss on his chest. One kiss led to another as she kissed her way down his abdomen to his belly button. She played with the inverted object of her concentration with her tongue. He groaned when she kissed his pelvic. When he placed his hand on the back of her head she thought he was going to stop her, but instead of stopping her he caressed her head, holding her in place to give him more of those sweet kisses. She couldn’t wait. She knew he wanted to be sure, but she couldn’t wait for him another night, another minute, another second.

She kissed her way back up to his mouth before straddling his body, untying her robe and pushing it open. If he wanted to stop her now would be the time to do it. But instead of stopping her, he lifted his hands to her shoulders and used his fingers to push the cotton fabric from where it covered her. As the material slithered down her arms she let it gracefully fall to cover her behind and rest against his body as she gracefully pulled her arms from the sleeves.

He slid the palm of his hands over her shoulders, down her arms and over her breasts, caressing her softly yet possessively. Her head lulled backwards as her eyes closed and she delighted in the feel of his touch. This would be special. She would make sure this was something she remembered for the rest of her life—no matter how long she would have left.

She opened her eyes, stared into his and then leaned forward. Her lips came so close to his. She slid her tongue over his bottom lip and took a few simple kisses before nipping his bottom lip with her teeth. He groaned again as she came in for a kiss. One hand slid down her spine to her behind, the other continued to massage her breast as she deepened the kiss.

“Hmm,” she moaned as he took possession of the kiss, exploring her mouth crevice by crevice. His tongue masterfully conquered hers and then, when he brought his hands to her waist and repositioned her to sit atop him in a position near ready for entry she knew where he wanted this to go—it was exactly where she wanted it to go. She kept kissing him as she slipped her hand in the waistband of his sweat pants and tugged them down as much as she could. He took care of the rest by using his own hands to pull them down more, allowing his erection to spring free.

She pulled her mouth back just enough to catch her breath. He, obviously, didn’t need air because he grunted before bringing his hand to the back of her head and pushing her back down for more of those delicious kisses.

She reached behind her, lifted her behind just enough to tug her robe from beneath her. She didn’t want anything between them and right now that robe was in her way. Once she got rid of that she guided him to her entrance, raised to a seated position and sank down on him slowly. Inch by inch she took him in.

“Good Lord,” he growled.

She placed her hands, palm open, on his chest, leaned forward and looked into his eyes as she moved atop him. Each stroke, each tingling sensation pulsing through her body was right there in her eyes connecting with him at this moment. She couldn’t break their eye contact; she wouldn’t break it. She rocked, raised and slowly lowered. She was in heaven, but judging from the expression on his face he was in hell trying to control himself. She couldn’t rush this. It felt too right and she wanted to make it last forever. But the longer she took the greater the urge built until she couldn’t stop it; she couldn’t hold back. She let
 
go, rising, gripping the sheets just above his head and taking all that she wanted, hoping she was giving him just as good in return.

“Yes,” she moaned as her eyes snapped shut. The force of the pleasure within her was taking over, driving her faster. She wanted more. She needed more.

“Keadon,” she gripped the sheets tighter.

“Take what you need, baby. Take it all.” His voice was strained with his own desire, his own control that was near the breaking point.

As if the invitation was all she needed she sat up, tossed her head back and rode him hard. The sensations within her felt too good to ignore, to stop, she just kept going. She kept taking him in, and then her pleasure reached a crescendo where there was nothing left but release. “Yes! Keadon!” She felt him grip her hips hard as she stilled above him, her walls clenching him tight, unbridled, and definitely not gently.

When the shooting daggers of pleasure stopped stabbing her body she collapsed onto his chest. He reversed their positions, hitched her knees up so that she wrapped her legs around his waist and he thrust into her, over and over again until he came within her.

It took her a minute to catch her breath as he lay on top of her. They hadn’t used anything, but it’s not as if she came prepared for this. She was clean, and she knew that. Of course there was his sexual history to consider, and the fact that unprotected sex could lead to a baby, but she wouldn’t regret this moment—she would never regret it.

He grunted. “I didn’t use a condom.”

“I know,” she stroked her fingers down his spine. “I’m clean. The only man who has had me has been Jason and I did have a full physical before I left him, and one the year after before I had to run again. Free clinics are definitely your friend.” Had it not been for being able to go to one she wouldn’t have been able to have medical visits. She didn’t do it often, in fact she hadn’t been to a doctor in a few years for any types of exams and checkups but she felt fine and she really couldn’t risk going anyway. Jason seemed to have connections in a lot of places—or at least the ability to buy information no matter the location.

He groaned in her ear. “That bastard,” he nearly growled.

“I’m clean, Keadon. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m clean too,” he told her. “Getting tested was mandatory in my profession and contrary to popular belief I don’t sleep with everything with two legs and a vagina. I didn’t sleep with Lisa either. It’s been a while for me, Debbie. I swear to you that.”

She giggled. “I’m glad you didn’t sleep with her. I’m your first in a while…I like that. And if it weren’t for Jason you would be my first ever. But he took that from me so I couldn’t give it to you. But if it means anything you’re the only man I have ever wanted to give this part of myself to. You’re the only man I have ever willingly given this part of myself to.”

He rose up on his elbows and stared down at her. “I’m honored,” he kissed her lips softly before bringing one hand up to brush the wet hair from her face. “Thank you,” he looked in her eyes again.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him; “for everything.”

Chapter Four

Jason looked around the secluded area. Her car was still here there was no way she was gone, but he had managed to get guys on the ground in this backwoods archaic town and they hadn’t seen her. “They’re clammed up,” Jake had told him. Nobody was talking. He had assured him it was because small towns meant news traveled swiftly and that stunt he pulled outside the restaurant had no doubt made the town circuit before he even got to a spot where he could make the call without being seen.

“Some of them swear they don’t even know who we’re talking about.”

“You showed her picture?”

“Yeah. They’re lying. They’re all lying.”

Jason nodded. He didn’t have enough guys on the ground here to get to every house. He didn’t even know where every house was because they were spread out. Small town or not, this place had a lot of land—land that could be developed if he cleared out the current residents. He smiled to himself just thinking of how he could clear them out. Nobody lied to him and nobody left him. Debbie already knew that, but these people were going to have to learn. First things first though, he would get Debbie back and then he would make sure everybody who lied took a permanent trip to hell.

He looked to Corbin, his most trusted employee. This man would kill for him, had killed for him, and he trusted him more than any of the others. Corbin had been down and out when Jason hired him on ten years ago. The man had wanted to be a fighter, but the league said he was too violent for them. Too violent, Jason had laughed. A man too violent for the Cage of Death was just the kind of man he needed to work for him. Ten years and Corbin had proven just why he deserved the top of the ladder.

“Find the weakest link and break him,” he looked back to the empty house in front of him; “or her.” He didn’t care if it were man or woman, he just wanted Debbie back. And when he got her back he was going to make her pay. The only reason he had approached Mindy was because of that sweet girl walking with her. That soft face, the long hair and the cute round behind had made him take note. He did what he had to do to have her. He even adopted her because adopting her would make people think twice if she tried to say he was touching her in a way she didn’t think he should. He figured people would see him as the dutiful dad to a spoiled brat and they had seen just that. But he always knew when she was of age he planned to change things. The right amount of money and legal adoptions could vanish and legal marriages could be made—with or without her consent. He waited long enough. A little push to get Mindy in the grave and he was ready. He had spent six years beating fear into Debbie and he knew she wouldn’t run, but she had run. He had come close before, but never this close. She was still here, he could feel her here. She wasn’t going to get away from him this time. He was going to get her back home where she belonged and when he got her there he was going to make her pay for five years worth of rebellion. He was going to take her body harder than she had ever been taken before and then he was going to beat her with his fist. Maybe he would give Corbin a go at beating her too. The man loved to hit people. So long as he didn’t mess up that sweet face of hers he could take ten minutes using her body as a punching bag, and when he was done Jason was going to take her to bed again. He had spent a long time thinking about this. Every year she was away he just got angrier. If she thought he was bad before she would soon realize just how lucky she had been. She had unleashed the devil with her rebellion and now the devil had come calling for payment. Oh yes, when he got her home, provided she survived, she would never run away from him again.

Riggs had told Keadon he spread the word, quietly, that the men searching for the woman they knew as Heather were bad men who wanted to hurt her. Josh Dolan had apparently told Riggs he figured that much after he heard about the man who accosted her outside the restaurant. Apparently news had spread fast, as always, and while people were curious, none of them were dumb to the fact that something wasn’t right.

Keadon entered the bedroom looking for Debbie since he hadn’t seen her in the kitchen. He knew she hadn’t left while he was gone. He was only gone for fifteen minutes while he took to the woods for a run to get to Riggs place. He hadn’t wanted to leave her alone, but Riggs didn’t think he should come to him. Keadon agreed. He could get to his brother much more covertly than his brother could come to him.

He checked his watch. He had been gone close to thirty minutes, but that wasn’t long enough for her to haul tail out of here. At least he hoped it wasn’t enough time for her to leave—unless she had been planning it before he even left. He felt his anger starting to build. She said she trusted him to protect her. Well, maybe she hadn’t said it in those exact words, but that’s what he had heard over breakfast this morning. Had she been lying to him? The Debbie he knew didn’t lie to him. He nearly laughed to himself. She had been lying to all of them for months. He couldn’t say she was lying about her name since Heather was technically one of her legal names, but when he asked her questions about what she did before she moved, where she lived, where her family was—he shoved his hand over his head; she hadn’t lied then either.

Debbie had avoided questions by deflecting. “What about your mother and father,” he had said as they worked on Bo Jackson’s truck, “where are they? I can’t believe your mother would want you moving to the middle of the mountains without something substantial to keep you going.”

“Oh she died,” she had said simply. He had apologized for her loss and then asked about her father.

“Hey what does this thingy do?” She pointed to the same fan belt he had already explained to her before. Previously he just thought she was one of those women who didn’t get car information retained in her brain, especially seeing as though she called it a “thingy,” but now he realized she was expertly deflecting his questioning. It had worked too because instead of focusing on her, on her family and her past, he had gone into education mode teaching her all about belts and cars. He realized now her interest in fixing car was her way of trying to learn what she could so she could keep her own vehicle functioning to the best of her ability. Knowing how to fix things would save her money that she couldn’t afford to lose. It would also keep her from having to come in contact with too many people along her route of escape. She couldn’t chance that one of those car repair men might know her father or somebody in his circle. She couldn’t chance being discovered so she was trying to learn what she could in order to stay off the grid as much as she could.

As he went through the house silently searching for her he was starting to worry she had ran. She had been running for the last five years of her life. Why did he think she would stop running now? Because he wanted her to stop, because he wanted her to trust him, and because he wanted her. She was the first woman in a long time that he saw more than just a few nights of passion with. She was the first woman in a long time that he had allowed himself to take to bed.

He couldn’t even say that he hadn’t felt something for her before yesterday. He felt something all right, but he resisted it, fought it, because she was young, because she had her entire life ahead of her, and because she deserved better than him. He didn’t think he was a horrible choice for dating, but she just seemed so innocent, so sweet, that he wasn’t sure he could ever deserve somebody like her.

She was soft curves while he was hard angles thrown together by war, by military training, by the death of the good men and women fighting with him, beside him and under his command. He had demons, ones he wasn’t sure it would be right to bring into her life. Turns out she had demons of her own—ones that hit harder, hurt deeper and shattered pieces of her a lot more than his ever could. That didn’t negate what he had gone through, it just made him think he should stop putting his feelings for her in the hole because one, life was too short to walk away with regrets, and two, a woman with demons of her own just might be able to understand the ones that haunted him.

God, if she was gone he was going to get in his car and find her, drag her back and put her on lockdown until she realized the safest place to be right now was with him.

He saw the tips of tiny feet sticking out from the side of the nightstand. He walked over to the bed and looked at Debbie huddled on the floor between his bed and the night stand. “Come out of there,” he offered her his hand and she reluctantly took it. “What is all this about?” He gestured to her hiding place.

She got to her feet on shaky legs. “I thought I heard a vehicle coming up the drive. You walked out of here so I was worried. I just…I got scared. I hid.”

He pulled her into his arms. “I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

“You had to; there was no other way. It might not have been anything anyway. I just thought I heard something, but I never heard a car door. I never heard anybody walking around outside. Maybe I was just imagining it all.” She shook her head. “I’m a wreck right now. I can’t even trust my ears.”

He held her just a little tighter. She was trembling still. He shouldn’t have left her. He wouldn’t leave her again, not after what he had found out from Riggs. There was no point in stalling on telling her. She needed to know what was coming their way. “They’re searching around town.”

“I figured they would.” She held on to him a little tighter. He could sense her fear and it made him hate that bastard Porter more than he already did. He couldn’t even imagine growing up with the hell she endured. She may have survived physically, but emotionally she was still hanging on by a thin thread. He figured she wouldn’t be able to start to fully heal until Jason Porter was no longer a threat to her. Maybe then, once he was gone, she would be able to learn to live without looking over her shoulder and being ready to run at the first sign of a shadow.

“There are at least twenty of them and Sheriff Gibbs can’t exactly just make them all get out of town.”

“Twenty?”

“That’s what Gibbs told Riggs but we don’t have a definitive count. They don’t have a place to stay so they’re going to have to figure something out.”

“Twenty?”

“Yeah, twenty.”

“My goodness, what did Jake tell them that there was a friggin’ army here or something? He’s only sent a few men before. I know the first time they got close there were only two. I saw them before they could see me and I got out of there fast. What are we going to do?”

He brushed his hand over her shoulder as she pulled back and looked up into his eyes. “We go to war.”

“But…

“By we, I mean Riggs and me. You are staying where I put you, kid.”

“I would think last night proved to you I’m not a kid.”

He laughed.

“Oh please don’t tell me you’re helping me because you think I’m some poor defenseless kid or something like that because if you are so help me—”

He captured her lips with his. He loved getting a rise out of her and calling her kid had always made her cheeks flame red with a hint of righteous indignation. She wasn’t a kid. She was all woman, completely woman,
his
woman.

He pulled back and looked at her closed eyes and the way her lips stayed parted waiting for him to take more, give more. “You were saying, kid?”

Her eyes sprung open and she slapped his shoulder. “Ooh, you do that on purpose.” She scowled at him.

He laughed. “Sure do. You’re just too cute when you’re angry.”

She chuckled. “This is not me angry, but yeah…stop calling me kid.”

“I’m not sure that I can. I’ve been doing it since the day I saw you.”

“I know,” she mumbled.

“It was my way of reminding me I couldn’t have you no matter how good you looked in those denim jeans and yellow tank top.” She had been wearing her hair in one French braid hanging down her back. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, yet she still looked alluring. Those dark blue jeans had clung to her slender curves in the most tantalizing manner, and the way the tank top hugged her waist had him thinking of holding on to it during an intense ride. Those were not thoughts he could have about her and he knew that then. Calling her kid was his way of reminding himself that she had a lot of life left to live, while all of his life experiences had made him feel twenty years older than his actual age. She deserved somebody young and ready to explore the world with her, not somebody who had already seen it—the beauty and the horrors of the world—and had no desire to explore it any deeper than he already had. That’s what he thought then; now he was thinking he would love to show her some of the good things he had seen. He would love to take her to London or Basel, Sydney or Munich. He would love to show her the good things he had encountered while serving his country because he knew she would love it, and maybe seeing it through her eyes would remind him of the good things that still existed in the world.