Suspicions (The Battling McGuire Boys Book 3) (7 page)

“I touched your hand. You looked up at me, and you smiled. Your first smile that whole night.”

Had he been watching her that entire time?

“I kissed you. Even as I did it, I knew it was wrong. That you weren’t meant for me.”

She didn’t want anyone else.

“Then I tasted you.” His mouth was so close to hers. She wanted to taste him right then. “And I was lost. I knew I’d never get enough of you.”

Her heart was a mad drumbeat in her chest. “But you...you stayed away.” For so long. He hadn’t tried to touch her again. Hadn’t kissed her—

Until I was back at his ranch. In that bedroom.

“I’m not the man you need.”

So wrong
. “You’re the man I want.”

Then she stopped waiting for him to kiss her. Ava wrapped her arms around him and pulled Mark close. She kissed him, pressing her lips to his because she loved his taste, too. She loved the way kissing him made her feel. Already her blood was heating. Arousal deepened within her. She’d been waiting a long time for this man...and she was done waiting.

The wood was hard against her back, and he was so strong before her. In his arms, she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t thinking about the past. It was just...him. That moment.

“I want to be with you,” she whispered against his lips.

He kissed her harder. Deeper. His tongue slid into her mouth and she moaned. Her breasts were aching. She wanted him—wanted him in her.

This wasn’t some frantic one-night stand. This was Mark. This was...everything.

His hands moved away from the wood. They locked around her hips, then slid down, curving around her and pulling Ava flush against him. There was no missing the force of desire.

He wants me, too.

“I can’t even think clearly when you’re close.” His words were ragged. So deep. “I want you naked. I want to kiss every inch of your body.”

Um, yes, that sounded more than good to her. It was a fabulous, fabulous plan. She’d love to explore his body. Kiss the scars she’d felt on his back. See if she could make him growl with desire. See if she could drive him as wild as he drove her.

“But I want to do things right with you.” He pressed a kiss to her throat. Right there, at the base of her neck. The spot that made her quiver. The spot he’d found. “And I’m not going to rush you.”

He pulled back.

No!

“You’re not rushing me.” How was he missing this? She felt like jumping him!

“Your brothers are watching, waiting for me to leave.” He shook his head. “When I take you, I’m going to want the whole night. Because when I get you in my bed, I’m not planning to let you leave anytime soon.”

She didn’t want him leaving then.

“Mark...”

He kissed her again. “I needed you to know,” he murmured against her lips, “that you can count on me.”

She already had known that.

“My secrets, my past—I won’t let them hurt you.”

Ava shook her head.

“Lock the door behind me,” he said.

He was leaving? “Stay,” she said.

She could see the struggle on his face.

“Mark...”

But he reached for the doorknob. “You need your rest, and you also need to think about what’s going to happen when we cross this line between us.”

The line between friends and lovers. She was ready to race across that line. Full speed ahead!

“There won’t be any going back.” His words were a warning, and his expression had darkened. “I don’t think I can have you once, then watch you walk away.”

She wasn’t going anyplace.

“I’ve seen a man’s obsession for a woman wreck his world.”

He had to be talking about Gregory Montgomery.

“I already think I’m half-obsessed with you. You should...be very careful with me.” He opened the door.

She caught his hand. “You’re nothing like him.”

“I don’t have his blood, but I lived in his house for years. There were things that happened there, things I don’t talk about much.”

“He hurt you.” And that knowledge enraged her.

Mark stared down at her.

“I touched the scars on your back.”

His shoulders lifted in a small shrug. “When he didn’t like the way I worked the ranch, he’d use his belt.”

Ava flinched.

“I was thirteen the first time he came after me. And I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing at the ranch. I learned, fast, not ever to make the same mistake twice.”

“Mark...” She started to wrap her arms around him, but he stiffened.

“I don’t want your pity, Ava.”

And wasn’t that why she responded so deeply to him? Because he didn’t look at her with pity in his beautiful gaze? “I don’t pity you,” she said clearly. “I just want to hurt Gregory.” In that instance, she figured it was a shame the dead couldn’t be hurt.

“He never touched my mother. Never let the ranch hands see what he did. I was dependent on him. He’d adopted me, taken us both in. I knew that if we left him, my mother and I would have nothing. Everything,
everything
was his.”

Her hands fisted. “You should have told us. My brothers—”

“Like Davis said, he figured out what was happening. It was right before my mom died. When she passed, I didn’t care anymore. I left. Rode out fast and hot, and I
wanted
that bastard to die, too.”

But Gregory hadn’t died, not then. He’d lived for years—and then Mark had come home.

And my parents died just a few days later.

“You are not like him,” she said, the words tight.
He was a monster.
Mark wasn’t. He was good and strong and—

“Everyone has darkness inside. We can all be pushed too far.” His breath heaved out slowly. “Remember that, when you’re making your choice. Because I’ve got more darkness in me than you probably can even guess.”

Davis...he’d said something before about Mark and—

“I want you too much. Maybe you should play it safe and tell me to stay away.”

She shook her head. Why couldn’t he see she wanted him the same way? “I’m not afraid of you.” Not of any part of him. Good, bad, darkness, light—whatever, it didn’t matter.

“Maybe you should be.” He inclined his head. “Lock the door, Ava.”

Then he was striding away and heading back to his SUV.

She shut the door.

Locked it.

A few moments later, she heard his vehicle crank. Mark drove away.

Maybe you should be.

* * *

T
HE
GATES
OF
the McGuire ranch shut behind him. Mark paused a moment, his vehicle idling. He was trying to do the right thing with Ava, but every time he got close to her, he just—wanted.

Wanted her naked.

Wanted to see her flush with pleasure.

And—

Her voice, soft and husky, echoed through his mind.
My last boyfriend...that was Alan Channing.

And that guy was a serious grade-A jerk.

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

Keep moving. Drive away. Now.

He shifted gears and drove down that dark road. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Ava that he worried he was already half-obsessed with her. He thought about her too much. Wanted to protect her at all times. Wanted to destroy anyone who threatened her—

I should let her go. She deserves more.

Because he’d lied to Ava before. Lied to the McGuires. Lied to the police. There were things he’d done that would always darken his soul. Things he never wanted Ava to know about.

Some secrets were better left buried with the dead. They couldn’t hurt anyone then. They couldn’t destroy a life.

He headed east, traveling back to his ranch. He thought of Ava as she’d last been, standing there with her eyes so big and deep, with her cheeks lightly flushed and her lips slightly swollen from his kiss.

Walking away from her then had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to pull away from her next time. He’d warned Ava. Now the choice was hers.

There were no other vehicles on the old dark road. His headlights cut through the night as his SUV ate up the distance to his ranch. He paused at his gate, slowing while he waited to head inside and—

The gunshot blasted. It hit his windshield, the boom like that of a firecracker exploding.

Even as Mark slammed down the gas pedal and the SUV shot forward, more shots were firing, striking the windows and the hood of his SUV in fast succession. Glass rained down on him and a bullet blazed right across his arm.

He needed to make it inside his property. He could get help if he could make it inside—

A bullet hit his front tire. One bullet, then another in fast succession. The SUV swerved as he tried to steady the wheel, but it was too late. The SUV broke through the fence, then barreled into a tree.

* * *

A
VA
PACED
AROUND
the guest cottage. Tension was knotting her gut. She kept thinking about Mark. About the choices people made in life.

About the choices she’d made.

No more running.

She stared out the window. It was so dark out there. She couldn’t even see the stars right then because storm clouds had rolled in. She’d heard the forecast for that night. She knew a powerful storm was supposed to sweep into the area before dawn.

As she gazed at the dark sky, lightning flashed for a moment, a bright streak that stretched like spindly fingers in the night.

Then she heard the crack of thunder. Only...

Her phone beeped. Ava turned around. She took a few steps and found her phone on the table near the door. When she picked it up, Ava saw that she’d just gotten a text from Mark.

Ava, I need you. Come meet me at my ranch.

Her breath caught and her fingers tightened around the phone. No, there would be no more running away for her. This time, she’d be running
to
someone.

She’d waited long enough. Time to start living.

She hurried from the guest house. Lightning flashed once more.

* * *

M
ARK
’
S
EYES
CRACKED
OPEN
. The pain hit him first, exploding in his head and he realized that he’d slammed into the steering wheel. His air bag hadn’t deployed—and the dash was smashed, pretty much caging him in the SUV. Broken glass littered the area around him. He could feel cuts on his arms, and the skin near his right shoulder burned—

Because some SOB took shots at me!

His memory returned in a flash. He’d wrecked and hit his head so hard that he must have lost consciousness for a few moments. He pushed against the mangled steering wheel and dash, trying to twist out, but there was no give there. He was pinned too tightly.

Fumbling, he tried to grab for his phone, but—

It wasn’t there. It should have been in the dock near the radio. Who knew where the thing had flown in the crash? The
dock
was gone. The driver’s side door was open, swaying drunkenly, freedom so close.

But he couldn’t reach it. He was trapped.

And that psycho with the gun could still be out there.

Fumbling, he tried to reach for the glove compartment. He kept a screw driver in that glove box. Not much of a weapon, but far better than nothing. And maybe he could use the screw driver to help pry himself out of that tangled mess. He stretched and his fingers slid over the edge. Almost...almost...

He couldn’t reach it.

Blood dripped into his eyes and lightning flashed.

He was a sitting duck. The shooter could come in for him at any moment, and Mark wouldn’t even be able to move.

* * *

D
ROPS
OF
RAIN
pelted down on Ava as she hurried to her car. She glanced up at the ranch house. Lights still glowed up there. If she just vanished in the middle of the night, her brothers would worry.

Her phone chimed again.

Ava, don’t make me wait long.

Her breath rushed out.

Come alone, sweetheart. I want to make love to you again.

Her drumming heartbeat grew even faster right then, because—she and Mark had never made love. And he’d never called her sweetheart.

Baby. He slipped up and called me
baby
once. But not sweetheart.

She ran toward the ranch house. For an instant, the past and present blurred. It was another night. She’d heard thunder—

I heard thunder a few moments ago.

She was running to the house, looking toward that big picture window...

Ava skidded to a stop. The big picture window was gone. Her brothers had remodeled the ranch house. The window she remembered from her nightmares had been torn down long ago.

The house looked so different now. A new place. There were flowers running around the house, and—

Lightning flashed.

Ava ran toward the door. She pounded her fist against it.
Hurry, hurry.
They weren’t answering fast enough. She grabbed the doorknob and twisted, but it was locked. So she pounded again and again and—

“Ava?” Davis had yanked open the door. “What’s going on?” He grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her into the house. “Is someone here? Did something happen?”

She jerked away from him. “Mark’s in trouble!” She was certain of it. “We have to go help him,
now
!”

Chapter Five

Low, rough laughter reached Mark’s ears.

He stopped struggling when he heard that sound.

“She’s coming...” the voice rasped. It came from too close by.

His headlights must have been busted out because they weren’t throwing off any illumination. The interior of the SUV was a dark hole.

“She thinks that she’s coming to you. Ava is racing to see her lover again, but she won’t find you.” The voice was still low. The jerk was trying to disguise himself.

Mark rammed against that steering wheel once more. Had it shifted just a little bit?

“She won’t find you, though. I’ll be waiting for Ava.”

No, no, that couldn’t happen. “You stay away from her!” Mark yelled as he heaved with all of his strength.

“You’re the one who should have stayed away.” It sounded like the guy was moving. Circling around the SUV? Yes, Mark could just see the guy’s outline. He was near the smashed front of the vehicle, raising his arm as lightning flashed. In that instant, Mark saw the gun gripped in the other man’s hand. “I warned you, but you just didn’t listen, did you?”

Mark surged against that wheel. Yes,
yes
,
it had shifted, just an inch, but an inch was all he needed. He could slide out now. But first he had to get a weapon. He also had to distract the assailant who had Mark locked in his sights.

“Ava isn’t yours. She was never meant for you.”

Mark forced himself to laugh. “Let me guess. You think Ava belongs to you?” His fingers slid over the passenger seat. He found a chunk of glass that had once been part of the passenger-side window. That chunk would have to do. Not a knife, but he could still do some serious injury with that thing.

Another part of my life that Ava doesn’t know about. I learned to kill, maybe too well.

He had more in common with her brothers than Ava realized.

“Ava is mine!” The voice was even lower. Mark had to strain to hear it. His eyes were trying to adjust to the darkness, and he thought the guy was wearing a hood...no, a mask.

Lightning flashed again.

A dark ski mask.

“I’ve had plans for Ava ever since she was sixteen.”

Mark’s blood turned to ice in his veins. “You killed her parents.”

Laughter. Laughter that he hated. “I’ll kill anyone who gets between Ava and me. She came back for me, and now I get to keep her.” He was raising that weapon. Mark saw the guy’s hand lift—

Mark jumped out the driver’s side door. The bullet erupted less than a second later, slamming into the driver’s seat. Mark hit the ground hard, and he rolled, twisting and coming up as fast as he could. There were trees all around there, plenty of space for cover, and he leapt for them, his heart racing fast and his legs pumping furiously.

Another shot sounded, and a chunk of bark flew off the tree near his head.
Missed me! Guess you can’t aim so well in the dark.

No wonder it had taken the guy so many hits to crash the SUV.

But the man hadn’t given up. He’d kept shooting and—

“You should never have touched Ava!”
The other words had been a rasp, but those were a scream. “She was mine. She was waiting for me! And you ruined everything!” A high, sharp scream.

Mark ducked behind a tree. He swiped his hand over his eyes to get rid of the blood that slid down from his forehead. He had his makeshift weapon. Now he just needed to find the right moment to attack.

Then he heard the growl of an engine. One that wasn’t coming from his ranch but instead seemed to be coming from the main road—the road from the McGuire ranch.

Ava’s coming. She thinks she’s coming to find you...

His phone had been missing from the SUV. The driver’s side door had been open... That guy must have used it to contact Ava! He’d lured her in with Mark as the bait.

Now he was waiting out there, armed with a gun, and Ava would have no clue what kind of hell she was walking into tonight.

I can’t let him hurt her!

He heard the thud of footsteps. His attacker was moving, probably rushing to better ground so that he could attack Ava when she approached. He’d fired at Mark’s vehicle, sending him crashing. The guy was planning the same kind of attack on Ava.

No!
Mark left his cover and ran after the attacker. Mark could see his shadowy form moving fast. The guy was rushing toward the road and the approaching vehicle.

“She isn’t yours!” Mark yelled out.

The other man froze. Then he started to swing around to face Mark.

Mark tackled him. They hit the ground, and the attacker’s gun flew from his fingers. Mark brought his weapon up and put it against the man’s neck. He definitely had on a ski mask, one that completely shielded his face, but his neck was open, and the glass pressed to his skin. “Make another move,” Mark snarled at him, “and you’re a dead man.”

The growl of the engine was coming closer and closer.

But the guy just laughed. “Left...a little surprise for sweet Ava.” His voice was a rasp. “Won’t ever see it coming.”

Mark’s head whipped up. It was so dark. He could only see the flash of Ava’s headlights as she drove—too fast—toward his ranch. “What did you do?”

And then he saw the headlights swirl. They spun around as the car seemed to lose control.

“I left some spikes in the road for Ava.”

He heard a crash, and terror clawed inside Mark’s chest.

“I didn’t want her getting to you too fast,” that rasping voice told him.

Mark slammed the guy’s head into the ground, and the masked man’s body seemed to go limp. Mark jumped to his feet and roared, “Ava!” as he started running toward the crash. Pain and fear twisted through him. He had to get to her, to find her. He pushed himself to run faster. Pushed so he could
get to Ava
. She’d been coming to help him, and if she was hurt, he didn’t know what in the hell he would do.

His feet thudded over the earth. His breath heaved out. Ava. He had to reach Ava.

“Freeze!”

And suddenly a bright light was shining on him.

“Mark?” That was Ava’s voice, coming from behind the light. “He’s bleeding!”

Yeah, he was probably bleeding from about a dozen different spots. So what? Ava was there—she was alive. She was also running to him. He could see her clearly now. She threw herself against him and embraced him. “I was so worried,” she whispered.

The bright light was still on him, and Mark squinted, trying to see past it, even as he held Ava as tightly as he could.

“What is happening?” a sharp voice demanded—Davis’s voice. He was the one with the light, and as he approached, Mark realized Davis was also holding a gun.

Brodie was at his twin’s side. “Someone put spikes in the road,” Brodie muttered.

“He’s back there,” Mark said, pointing behind him. “I left him on the ground.” Each word seemed to take way too much effort, and the blood was dripping in his eyes again.

But Ava is safe. She’s in my arms. I won’t let anything happen to her.

“He...shot at me when I drove through the gate. Crashed, and he was waiting...”

“Where is he?” Davis demanded.

“About fifteen feet in front...of the line of trees...west side...”

Davis took off running with his gun drawn. Brodie was a step behind him.

Mark didn’t join the hunt. He wasn’t about to leave Ava. His hand curled around her chin. “I heard the crash,” he whispered. “Baby, are you okay?”

“I’m not the one bleeding all over the place,” she said. “We have to get you to a hospital.”

Yeah, he could probably use some stitches—or maybe a few dozen. But... “I was scared,” he told her, the words little more than a growl. “Knew he was...going after you. Can’t let him...can’t let him hurt you.”

“And I didn’t want him hurting you!” Her voice was sharp. She pulled out her phone and called 9-1-1. As she talked, Ava kept one hand on him, almost as if she was afraid of letting him go.

He knew he couldn’t let her go. Ava mattered too much.

* * *

D
AVIS
’
S
LIGHT
SWEPT
over the battered remains of Mark’s SUV. The windshield was gone, and bullet holes littered the vehicle.

Behind him, Brodie gave a low whistle. “Someone was playing hard.”

“He wasn’t playing.” His backed away from the vehicle. It was so dark out there, and the light he was shining made him a target. He’d searched where Mark indicated, but there had been so sign of the man who’d tried to kill Mark. He and Brodie had branched out and scanned the area, but the guy had seemingly vanished.

“He didn’t realize just how hard Mark would be to take down.” Davis killed his light. He wanted to get back to Ava and Mark just in case the man they were searching for had decided to circle around for another attack. “His mistake.”

Because Davis knew just how Mark had spent his years away from Austin. He’d kept secrets for Mark over the years, just as Mark had kept quiet about Davis’s past. There were some things that shouldn’t be shared.

The world already had enough nightmares.

He and Brodie hurried back to Ava. There were too many trees around them. Too many places to vanish. He hadn’t heard the sound of a car, so the guy they were hunting must still be on foot.

If he was lying in wait out here, then he must know the area. To vanish so quickly in the dark, he has to be familiar with this land.

There were some old trails leading away from Mark’s ranch. The guy could’ve escaped on one of those and had a ride waiting in the distance.

Or the man could still be out there, hiding and waiting for a chance to take another shot at his prey.

You won’t get a shot at my sister.
No one messed with his family. No one.

When he got back to Mark and Ava, he wasn’t surprised to see that Mark had moved them closer to Brodie’s smashed car. They’d hit the side of a tree after going over those spikes, but the body of the vehicle was still rock solid. Mark and Ava had taken shelter back there.

“I called the ranch,” Mark muttered to him. “Help’s on the way. Until the cops get here, my men can hold that jerk who—”

“We didn’t see him.” But they had found a gun the guy had left behind. He’d tucked it into his waistband so he could give it to the cops.

“He’s still out there?” Mark demanded, and Davis saw Mark instantly pull Ava closer to him.

He’d known how Mark felt about Ava. When the guy looked at her, his eyes always got that too-intense expression in them. But Mark had been keeping his hands off Ava for years. He’d stayed away.

Looks like he’s not holding back any longer.

Instead, he was holding her tight.

Davis knew that any man who tried to take Ava from Mark Montgomery would have a fight on his hands.

“I’m not like Gregory.”
No, Mark wasn’t, but he was still one very dangerous man. How would Ava respond when she learned about Mark’s past?

He heard the approach of vehicles then—several, by the sound of things. The cars weren’t coming from the main road. Instead, they were coming from the Montgomery ranch. Had to be Mark’s staff, rushing to help. Good. He could use them. They could fan out and search the area. Because if that guy was still close—
and he has to be—
then they still had a chance of stopping him.

The vehicles braked. Car doors slammed. The men hurried forward.

“Mark, buddy, are you okay?” Davis recognized the voice of Ty Watts, Mark’s foreman and friend.

“He’s not okay,” Ava said, her voice shaking. “He’s bleeding too much, and the ambulance needs to hurry.”

Davis tensed. He hadn’t examined Mark’s wounds because the guy had looked strong when he ran toward them. But Mark was an ex-soldier. If he was at death’s door, he’d still probably race straight ahead, showing no weakness.

“We need your men to search,” Davis said, his words sharp. “We have a man out there, possibly armed.” He didn’t know how many guns the guy might have brought to the ambush. “He was here a few minutes ago, and we have to find him.”

Before he decided to attack again.

Brodie led the men on the search.

Davis slapped his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “How bad?” he asked softly.

“I’ve had much worse.”

Davis noticed that Mark’s hand was still wrapped around Ava’s as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.

“We’ll get him,” Davis assured him before he started to turn away.

But Mark’s words stopped him.

“I should have killed him,” Mark muttered, “when I had the chance.”

“No!” came Ava’s instant denial. “Mark, you’re not a killer. That’s not who you—”

Mark’s laughter was bitter as he finally eased his hold on Ava. “Oh, baby, there is so much you don’t know about me.”

“Mark?” Now her voice was hesitant.

“Next time,” Mark promised, the words heavy with lethal certainty, “he won’t walk away. He’s not going to have you, no matter what that sick freak thinks.”

Davis tensed.

“He said you’re his, Ava.” Mark seemed to be gritting out the words. “He thinks he’s going to have you.”

An obsession. One that had sure escalated tonight.

“I don’t—” Ava began.

“He told me...that he had plans for you. That he’d had plans since...” Mark’s voice roughened, and he stopped.

Mark was holding back. They couldn’t afford that.

“What did the guy say?” Davis prompted Mark.

Mark’s hand lifted as if he’d touch Ava again, but then his hand fell back to his side and his fingers clenched into a fist. “I’m sorry, Ava.”

This wasn’t good.

“Mark?” Fear threaded through his name as Ava reached out—and she didn’t hesitate. She touched Mark. She curled her fingers around his hand and held tight.

“He said...” In the distance, Davis could finally hear the faint sound of an ambulance approaching. “He said he’d had plans for you...ever since you were sixteen...”

* * *

M
ARK
M
ONTGOMERY
WASN
’
T
DEAD
.

He was still very much
alive
and the man was currently with Ava.
With my Ava!