Keeping Watch: Heart of the Night\Accidental Bodyguard (39 page)

Shocked by the bottom-line truth, she opened her fists and mindlessly tangled her fingers into the soft, faded folds of his chambray shirt. She felt nothing soft beneath the material, and trembled at the dangerous illusion of power she felt at touching all that brute strength without being harmed by it.

He’d shielded her with that very strength. It was a heady, humbling feeling.

“You saved me.” She swallowed hard, fixing on the beating pulse along the column of his neck, as she worked through the terrible risk this stranger had taken to protect her. “You could have been killed, too.” Through the barrier of cotton, her fingers brushed across that sculpted wall of strength. “Thank you.”

The words felt inadequate. But as her fear and anger receded, other thoughts, more startling, more pleasurable, crept back into her conscious mind. His face might be initially shocking to look at; with its strikingly harsh expression she suspected one grew accustomed to it rather than learned to love it. But there was something utterly fascinating about Jonas Beck’s body.

With his hips pinning hers in the soaking mold of mud and water, she realized her legs had veed apart and his trunklike thigh was wedged at her most intimate place. His scent, intensified by the exertion of his efforts to save her, was simple and fresh. Plain soap and musky man. And despite the rough angles of his face, the texture of the skin itself was remarkably smooth. Up close like this, she was learning firsthand about the taut, broad muscles of his arms and chest—and how precisely he controlled them.

Mammoth as it was, there was an artistic proportion to his body that made her feel as if she’d been wrestling with Michelangelo’s statue of
David
. She was vibrantly aware of the raw potency of his overwhelming masculinity and how completely feminine that made her feel.

Her body’s softening, feverish response distracted her from both her violent past and shaky future. For a few moments she savored the surprising sensations that warmed her body from the inside out. And she pondered the notion that this beast of a man with the scarred face and foul mouth and brutish temperament should be the one to awaken such a curious warmth inside her.

But this was neither the time nor the place—nor the man—to discover the extent of her body’s sexual awakening. She needed to focus on staying safe, and on finding the truth and clearing her name with the authorities. What her body thought she wanted wasn’t important. She resolutely lifted her gaze to his face. “I think you’d better get off me now. Please?”

His eyes had closed, his mouth had squeezed into a grim line, but he nodded. “I’m working on it.”

Faith tried to wiggle free, immediately feeling less concerned about escaping her own wayward thoughts than by the reason he’d been lying so still for so long on top of her. “Are you hurt?”

“It’ll pass.” He placed an encompassing hand at her waist to hold her still. Long, callused fingers sizzled against the bare skin of her back as they slipped beneath the tied hem of her voluminous shirt.

Faith ignored her impulse to scoot away from the overly familiar touch. The big man was in pain. “Did the truck hit you? A rock? Are you cut?”

His eyes blinked open. “You nipped me with your knee on the last bump.”

“Nipped you?”

“In the crotch, lady.”

“Oh.” Embarrassment flooded her own cheeks. He could be hurt by something so basic? She’d somehow imagined him to be impervious to injury. Except for that scar. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll be fine in a minute. Let’s just move slowly until then, okay?”

“All right. Can you roll to the side and I’ll sit up?”

“Yep.”

With his steely control evident in the tight clench of his jaw, Jonas shifted his weight onto one elbow and tilted his hips off Faith. A breeze of cool air swept over her body, chilling her with goose bumps. When she was sure it was safe, she slipped across her bed of mud and beaten-down leaves and sat up across from him. The September morning felt colder than it had earlier, now that his body wasn’t shielding her with its strength and heat.

She watched Jonas take in steadying breaths of air and slowly exhale while she huddled inside her wet clothes and mud-spattered skin. With the equally powerful rushes of adrenaline and unexpected desire waning, Faith was able to think rationally again. She wiped a splotch from her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear, leaving her hand to rest against her neck. “I’m sorry I got you involved in all this.”

“Just what am I involved in?” His blue eyes were piercing as they searched her face.

She slipped her hand down to her right front pocket, double-checking the condition of the hidden disk. Those ice-blue eyes followed the movement, but asked no more questions. Faith pushed herself to her feet and busied herself straightening her sticky clothes, uncomfortable with his perception that seemed to know a lot more than his silence let on.

He probably thought she was an idiot or a crazy lady already, and any explanation resembling the truth of her predicament would only cement that opinion of her. She summoned her best young executive tone instead, coming up with a halfway decent excuse. “I borrowed that car from a friend for my vacation. First, I let it run out of gas, and now I lose it. I’m not sure how I’ll explain my lack of responsibility.” The sheriff had already said the car belonged to a dead woman. “Explain it to my friend’s family,” she hastily amended.

“I thought you were raised to be responsible.” He mocked her with the assertion she’d made at breakfast. “What about the truck trying to run you down?”

“My tired imagination.”

Jonas rolled to his feet, not buying her bull. “So the big man with the big knife you thought was chasing you through the woods had nothing to do with you running out into traffic?”

She felt the color draining from her cheeks and turned away. “Maybe you did spook me a little.”

He stalked past her to the tree where his knife was imbedded and wedged the blade free. “You’re a lousy liar. You’re scared of something. Scared shi—spitless.” He wiped the knife clean on his pant leg and snapped it into the leather sheath at his waist. “And until you learn to take care of yourself better, I’d stay out of the middle of the road and I’d stick to the truth. Chances are the sheriff hired someone at a local garage to tow your car. The driver went up to the next turnaround because the road’s narrow here. Either he didn’t see you, or you do have something serious to worry about.”

He turned his back on her and strode toward the path through the trees where he’d descended earlier. Faith ran to catch up to him, then marched in doubletime to match his pace. “But why would the sheriff do that? You told him you’d fix the car. Why would he take it without my permission?”

“I don’t know why, I’m only suggesting a possibility.” If he was feeling any of the suspicions she did, he didn’t show it. He started up the incline and Faith scrambled up after him. “Maybe Prince was trying to be neighborly. He doesn’t like that you stayed the night with me.”

Using her hands as much as her feet, she fell into step behind him, too confused to argue the point. Jonas handled his knife with the cool efficiency of a hired killer. His antisocial act could be the ultimate cover for a man as lethally deceptive as Copperhead seemed to be. Maybe Jonas Beck was the very thing she needed to fear most—Sheriff Prince and his deputy did. But the logic of it didn’t make sense. “If they took my car, they’ve virtually abandoned me with you. How is that safe?”

He halted above her and turned. Faith pushed herself to a standing position, eliminating only a fraction of the height difference between them. He shook his head. “I don’t have answers for you.”

Then he did the most surprising thing. He held out his hand. To help her make the climb. Faith stared at the big hand, feeling an unexpected comfort in the polite gesture, yet she was very sure that
comfort
was not what he’d intended to offer.

A bone-deep need to connect with another human being and ease some of the terror and isolation that consumed her had her reaching out and laying her palm against his. His big, impersonal fingers folded her up in his grasp and he turned toward the path. But Faith tugged against the pull of his strength, refusing to blindly take even the little support he offered.

He paused and looked down at her expectantly, neither forcing her to follow nor releasing her.

“How do I know I can trust you?” she asked, looking for the answer in the icy shallows of his eyes.

“You don’t.”

She pressed her lips together, hesitating. Then she took a deep breath and spoke her heart. “I need to trust someone.”

His eyes shadowed before he blinked, and then they were clear. Deep lines grooved beside his mouth as it curved into a humorless smile. “It’s a kicker, isn’t it?” He answered without giving her reason or permission to trust him.

Faith frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means we’re going back to the cabin to wash up. I’ll call the sheriff on my cell. Then I’ll drive you into town and we’ll track down your
stolen
car.”

“Mr. Beck, I—”

“Save it. I don’t want to know your story. I don’t want to be a part of your lies. I don’t care what you need. I just want you on your way so I can get back to my life.” He pulled on her hand. “Let’s move it.”

His life?

Just what kind of life did a recluse with such a hard face and even harder heart have?

But though his words held no comfort, his grip was gentle and his strength unwavering as he led her back up the mountain.

“W
HERE IS SHE NOW
?”

The two executives strolled down the concourse of the Washington, D.C., Reagan International Airport, dodging tourists with too much luggage and commuters hurrying to make their morning flights. They looked like any other pair of politicians or CEOs discussing the business of the day. It was an easy role to assume. Easy and inconspicuous. Definite necessities given the circumstances.

“We had a sighting on the car in Wyoming. We had a man in place who confiscated the vehicle, but failed to neutralize her.”

“I want you to handle it personally.” The traveler with the senior authority plucked a shred of lint from the taller one’s sleeve. “She may have switched vehicles again. Once she’s located, use whatever assistance you need to keep her under observation until your arrival. I don’t want to lose her this time.”

“Understood.” The taller one nodded. He was all business, never joking, never wasting words. He was well worth the considerable expense he was being paid. “The plan will be delayed with the added travel,” he cautioned.

The one who was paying all that money shrugged. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this to come together. I can wait a while longer. I’ll make the necessary calls.”

They stopped at the baggage claim carousel to pick up their luggage. Not another word was spoken until they were on the move again. The shorter of the two flagged down a cab outside the terminal and asked, “Are we sure she has the disk?”

“Most likely. It hasn’t turned up at the lab or her home or at any of her usual contacts. Perhaps her uncle?”

The short one’s head moved from side to side, negating the possibility. “We have him under surveillance. Nothing yet. And Miss Monroe seems to be the type of woman who would endanger herself before allowing her family to be harmed. She won’t go back to the farm any time soon.”

“Perhaps she doesn’t know what she’s holding on to.”

“Rutherford told her something, I’m sure.” That was the real concern. How much did Faith Monroe know? Would she use it as a bargaining chip to ensure her and her family’s safety? The idea of blackmail and exposure didn’t sit well. Not as the potential victim, at any rate. “It could have been everything. It might have been nothing more than an old man pouring out his affection.”

“Then why run?”

“You can be a very intimidating man.”

A yellow cab jerked to a stop in front of them and the cabbie jumped out to take their bags and load them in the trunk. Public transport was such a step down from the usual limo ride. But this was part of the cover. It was a necessity in order to complete the plan. And nothing—no one—would stand in the way of the plan.

While the cabbie was arranging the trunk, they climbed into the back seat. The short one handed over an attaché case to the tall one. “Severing our connection to Eclipse Labs was too messy. This time, I want it neat.”

“Dead bang,” the tall one promised. He knew what was inside. He didn’t have to count it. He wasn’t the sort of man that one shortchanged.

His employer smiled. “Good. I don’t care how you do it, I just want to know when it’s done.”

The tall one nodded. “Your problem will be resolved within seventy-two hours, and the disk will be returned to you.”

“That’s the best news I’ve had this week.” It actually felt appropriate to smile. “This mission has been planned from start to finish. Now that we’re so close, I won’t let some dewy-eyed hick of a girl stand in my way.”

“She won’t be a problem much longer.”

The tall man slid out of the cab with his money, gave the cabbie a generous tip and asked for his suitcase to be returned. By the time the befuddled driver had slid behind the wheel and pulled into traffic, heading for an office building near the Smithsonian, the tall man had disappeared inside the crowded terminal.

“Faith Monroe isn’t any real threat.” The cab’s remaining passenger leaned back against the stiff vinyl seat, risking a smug smile at the prophetic turn of events. “Her father wasn’t, either.”

“W
HY DIDN’T YOU
call before towing my car? We could have avoided this whole misunderstanding.”

“I’m telling you, lady, I didn’t tow your car.” Faith had yet to get a satisfactory answer from the gum-chomping teenager in the grease-stained coveralls at Bill’s Tire and Garage. “The guy who dropped it off said he was from Beaverton. He was passin’ by, thought it looked like a hazard. There’s hardly any shoulder up there as it is. I only put it up on the rack for repairs like he told me.”

Faith schooled her patience on a deep breath and tried again. “All it needs is a tank of gas. There’s nothing that has to be fixed.” She gestured up toward the suspended car. “Bring down my car. I need it.”