Lawless (17 page)

"Milo."  She stepped forward into his
personal space, her footsteps the slightest bit wobbly.

He reached out to steady her.  "We should
keep our distance."

She laughed.  "Are you afraid I'm going to
attack you in the wilderness?"  She took another step, and he put a hand
up between them.  She took it, pressing it between both of her hands before she
wrapped her fingers around it and held it to her breast.

"Ariana," he warned.

"It's okay, Milo."

"It's not."

She opened his palm and pressed it against her
wildly beating heart.  "Can you feel that?"

"Ariana."

"It means I'm alive."

"It means you're drunk, and we're both
going to regret anything that we let happen tonight."

"No," she said with plenty of
conviction.  "It means no matter what you do, there are no guarantees that
either of us will have a tomorrow.  Right now, we're alive, and this was
turning into the perfect evening.  When was the last time you relaxed and
laughed like that?"

He pulled his hand away.  "I don't relax. 
Ever.  Not when someone's life is at stake."

"Seriously."  She pushed against his
chest.  "You are wound so tight I'm surprised you haven't had a heart
attack."

He stood his ground, his gaze boring into
hers.  She sensed he was on the verge of coming uncorked, and she was just
drunk enough she didn't care.

"You've got your life all buttoned up
perfectly."  She walked her fingers up his abdomen.  "You're the
hometown hero, with nerves of steel.  You tease the ladies, but you'll never
commit to one of them.  On the surface, you're Mr. Perfect, but deep down, you're
the one that's truly messed up."

Several seconds ticked by with nothing but
their breathing and the sound of crickets to fill the void.  The intensity of
his stare shot a frazzled shiver straight to her core.  Still, he didn't break.

She heaved out a frustrated sigh and stepped
back.  "And I thought my life was a disaster."  She turned to head
back to camp.

"The last time I relaxed while protecting
someone, she died, Ariana.  Did you hear that?  She
died
."  His
voice cracked as he said the last word.

She stopped and turned.  If she'd thought he'd
looked tortured before, his expression was ten times worse now.  The pained
look on his face broke her heart.  "Milo…"  He didn't stop her this
time when she got close to him.  She lifted a hand, resting it on his cheek.  "I'm
so sorry.  Will you tell me about her?"

He shook his head as though gathering his
emotions.  "She walked.  She'd been confined for a long period of time,
just like you.  She kept threatening to walk, insisting her life wasn't worth
living if she couldn't be free."

His words hit home.  "Just like me."

It was his turn to cup her cheek.  "Just
like you."

The sadness in his face made her want to cry.  "That's
why you were so angry with me the day you couldn't find me.  It's why you were
so worried."

He nodded.

"I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry.  You're doing
this as a favor to a friend, and I'm making your life hell."

"No."  He pulled her closer, brushing
his lips across hers in a soft kiss.  "Never hell."

"What happened to her?"  She shouldn't
ask.  She was far too close to a similar situation, and it wouldn't do anyone
any good if she was frightened of her own shadow.

"She's was a party girl.  Pretty.  Enough
that she caught the attention of a high-powered drug dealer.  He messed her up
one night, and she thought turning him over to the cops would be a great way to
get revenge.  It worked out for the Feds.  Not so much for her.  She didn't
have the fortitude to stay away.  She snuck away one night and called her party
friends."  He dropped his gaze.  "They found her two days later in a
muddy ditch on the outskirts of New Jersey.  If we didn't have her fingerprints
on file, the authorities would have been hard pressed to identify her."

A stone-cold shiver skittered across her skin. 
She folded her arms.  "That wasn't your fault, Milo.  No one can make us
follow the rules if we choose not to."  She swallowed, thinking of her own
infidelities.  "She put her life in danger.  Not you."

 He took off his flannel shirt and draped it
over her shoulders.  "I could have done more.  I should have seen the
signs."  He shook his head.  "It weighs heavy on me."

"It would me, too."  That was a huge
burden to bear even if it wasn't his fault.  "But she lived her life her
way, Milo.  I know you were trying to help her, but you can't take away her
right to freedom.  Part of me can understand why she walked."  She tucked
her arms inside his shirt, loving the way the soft cotton smelled of him,
warming her inside and out.

He gripped her hand.  "Don't ever do that
to me, Ariana.  Promise me you won't do anything that might bring harm to you."

"Okay."  She tried to give him a
reassuring smile, her guilt as heavy as a fifty-pound block of cement.  "Don't
worry about me.  My days are almost up, and then I can have my life back."

*        *        *

Milo held her hand as they walked through the
quiet moonlight.  He hadn't said much after he'd given her a peek into his
psyche, but she could appreciate how hard opening up had to be for him.  Taking
her on, doing this favor for Quinn, had cost him more than it would most
people.  This warmth that now surrounded them spawned from a different place
than the sexual heat that forever blazed between them.  She liked the comfort
it brought her, and she could only hope it brought him the same kind of
fortitude and solace.

Their path took them on another downward
slope.  It seemed they'd gone up and down several times.  Tall brush grew just
off their path, with pines and aspens giving them solitude.  "How far are
we from camp?"  The full moon hovered high in the sky, and she had nothing
to mark their heading.  For all she knew, they were completely lost.

He stopped, taking her arms and turning her a
quarter of a turn.  Coming up behind her, he put a hand on one hip, and pointed
past her with his other.  "There's a hint of our fire, if you look right
through those trees."

Ariana followed his direction until she spotted
the glow.  "I see it.  It seems like we've been walking forever, but we're
not that far away at all.  For all I knew, we were walking in circles."

He laughed then, the first hint of amusement or
happiness since they'd danced by the fire.  "Busted.  Not circles
necessarily, but not a straight line, either.  I wasn't ready to head back to
the others yet, but we probably ought to now.  It's getting colder."

She snuggled deeper into his flannel shirt,
warmed by the thought that he'd purposely kept her out there in an effort to
spend time alone.  "That's okay.  I just didn't want to get lost."

"No fear of that.  I've been roaming these
hills forever."

They kept the banter lighthearted as they made
their way back, and Milo had taken her hand again.  She liked it though she had
to wonder if it was because he liked her, or because he thought she'd trip on
the uneven, unfamiliar terrain.

When they walked into camp, their group of
friends had become noticeably smaller.

"Where did everyone go?" Milo asked
as he sat next to Scott.  Ariana planted herself in the camp chair next to him.

"Kim wasn't feeling well," Scott
replied.  "Jerry took her home.  Sierra didn't want to stay if Kim wasn't,
so she and Tyler left, too."  He twisted the top off another beer.  "Looks
like it's just the six of us."

Ariana swiveled toward Milo.  "I thought
Kim was our designated driver."

"Aren't you guys staying?"  Luke
adjusted his ball cap as he tossed the question to Milo.  "You always
stay."

Milo glanced from Ariana to the others.  "Uh,
actually, we'd planned on catching a ride with Jerry and Kim, and picking my
truck up tomorrow."

Ariana nodded.

Scott laughed.  "Looks like you're shit
out of luck.  I don't think any of us are in any shape to drive.  Hope you
brought sleeping bags."

Ariana's brows shot skyward.  "Sleeping
bags?"  She glanced about the camp.  "There's not even a tent."

"We sleep under the stars."  Lily
nudged her husband.  "Like Luke, Milo and Scott did as boys, right? 
Except we pile in the backs of our trucks so we're not on the ground where the
crawly things can get us."

"Crawly things?"  Ariana's gaze
slipped to the dirt.

Luke scoffed.  "There are no crawly things
to be worried about.  We've been over this a hundred times, Lily."

"Don't tell me that," Lily threw back
at him.  "There are snakes.  I've seen them."

"Snakes?"  Ariana lifted her feet off
the ground as she eyed Milo, feeling the slightest bit panicky.  "You took
me walking in the dark with snakes around?  Are you crazy?"

"You're freaking her out, Lily." 
Milo took Ariana's hand.  "There aren't any snakes that are going to get
you.  There are mostly rattlers out here, and they only come out during the
day.  Right now, they're curled up under rocks sleeping."

"Rattlesnakes are poisonous."  She
shook her head.  "You're not helping."

"Honey, I've been coming out here for
years.  Roaming the hills, sleeping on the ground.  I've never been bitten.  No
one else here has either."

"There was—"

"Scott."  Milo cut him off.  "There's
nothing to be afraid of.  I promise to keep you safe, okay?"

She let that thought settle in her slightly
fuzzy brain.  She'd trusted Milo with her life where her father's men were
concerned.  There was no reason to not trust him now.  "Okay."  She
tentatively rested her shoes back on the ground.

"Don't worry, Anna," Jen joined in.  "I
don't like snakes, either, but we're not going to run into any tonight.  They
don't like the fire, and like Milo said, they'll be hiding under a rock
somewhere.  Not bugging us."

Ariana nodded.  "Thanks.  That makes me
feel better."  She appreciated how all of Milo's friends seemed concerned
for her welfare.

"Now that that's settled, we're still
screwed.  I've got a couple of blankets, but I didn't bring sleeping bags." 
Milo looked at Ariana.  "I hate to ask you, but hopefully you'll be okay
crashing in the front of the truck for a couple of hours until I'm good to
drive.  Usually, I'm better prepared."

"We've got an extra bag and an extra quilt
in case it gets too chilly," Lily offered.  "Coupled with your
blankets, do you think that will be enough?"

Ariana glanced at Milo with no idea what his
reaction would be.  Never in a million years could she have pictured herself
sleeping next to a mountain pond in the bed of a truck under the stars.  She
couldn't get much farther away from downtown Chicago.

"Up to you, Anna.  Are you feeling
adventurous?"

All eyes in the party turned to her.  If she
said no, she'd disappoint them.  She couldn't do that to these kind people who'd
treated her as one of their own.  She gave them a smile that was a hundred
times more confident than she felt.  "Okay.  Why not?"

Luke twisted the cap off another beer and
handed it to Milo.  "Better keep her, man."

"I'm planning on it."  Milo took the
chilled bottle from his friend, but didn't laugh, didn't echo the teasing
sentiment of his friend.

Ariana studied his profile.  Her deputy certainly
was a great actor.  If she didn't know better, she'd believe he meant every
word.

It was nearly two a.m. before the guys
extinguished the fire.  Scott complained he was tired, but from the way he
hurried after Jen to his truck, Ariana was pretty sure he had other things in
mind besides sleep.

Luke and Lily called it a night as well, which
meant she and Milo needed to follow suit or appear suspicious.  Lily carted
over the extra bedding to Milo's truck, and Luke was kind enough to give Ariana
his pillow.

Beneath the soft glow of the moon, Milo spread
the quilts on the bed of his truck before laying the sleeping bag over them. 
He sighed.  Then he picked everything up and put the sleeping bag bottom first
this time.  "I hope we don't freeze our asses off, but I think we'll be
more comfortable this way."

She eyed the makeshift bed with trepidation. 
It wasn't a real bed.  There would be others not far away.  Unfortunately,
there was maybe five feet from side to side, and that felt pretty damn intimate
to her.  How was she supposed to fall asleep next to the man who haunted her
dreams?

Milo tossed the pillow to one side of the truck
before walking to the tailgate.  He extended a hand down to her.  She grasped
it, put one foot on the bumper, and he hauled her up.

He folded the quilts out of the way, and she
stepped forward.  "This is kind of awkward," she said in a low tone
the others wouldn't hear.  "Us sleeping together but not really sleeping
together."

The low rumble of his laugh sparked shivers
inside her.  "Think we can behave?"

"We have to, don't we?"

"Yes."  His reply was firm, but edgy,
too.  The sparks between them were undeniable.  It was easier to ignore her
attraction when they weren't in such close proximity, but that wasn't an option
tonight.

She lay down next to him, leaving as much space
between them as possible.  He pulled the layers of quilts over them.  "Warm
enough?"

"I'm good."  Between his shirt, the
blankets, and being so close to him, lack of heat was not an issue.  The uneven
surface of the truck bed, however, wasn't exactly a comfy mattress, but she wouldn't
complain.  She fluffed the feather pillow and tucked it beneath her head.

Milo released a weighted breath.  Darkness and
silence crept in, making it seem like they were cocooned in their own little
world.  The stars above glimmered like they'd done for centuries, and suddenly,
everything about her life growing up in Chicago seemed surreal.  "It's
funny how looking up at a sky full of stars can make you feel insignificant. 
Like all your problems are almost silly."