The Protector of Ambra (Mercenaries of Fortune, #5) (8 page)

His fist pounded a spot on the log next to him while he scooted over. “Sit. Your pacing is driving me nuts.” He laughed as she plopped down with all the petulance of a pouting child. “C’mon, Melody. I’m not looking for you to be James Bond when the guns come out. You kept us safe – me safe – and got us out of that. I trust you.”

She twisted her finger around tendrils of overgrown weeds. “Didn’t really have a choice.”

“That’s what I like about you. You act when the situation requires it. I don’t like the angry bits that come after it, but you’re there when it matters. Look, you could have easily stayed at home and licked your wounds. But you didn’t. You’re here.”

“I didn’t have a choice there either. Without that money, I lose three months’ payment on—”

He nudged his shoulder against hers. “That’s what I’m saying. You answer the call. I don’t expect you to stop doing that now. There’s a reason I’m not pushing you to stay in the car. You won’t. You can’t. My boss is all about putting people where they fit best...” Pierce grimaced, running his fingers through his hair before relaxing into a soft smile. “For instance, I’m a great doctor. Maybe without my knee injury, who knows where he would have put me. But this is my lot in life.”

“It’s not a bad life from what I see.”

“I’m starting to realize that. Maybe I needed this detour as much as you did.”

“How did you know you wanted to be you? The type of man you are today, I mean. I’m me because of my mother.”

Pierce’s nostrils flared and he let loose a chest emptying breath. “Same here, in a backwards sort of way. My parents are wealthy. They loved me – love me – but in their way, you know? What you have with your mom, I had with a couple of nannies. It’s not the same. When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark. Terrified. Father wouldn’t let any of the staff come to help me. He wanted me to be a real man. I cried and screamed night after night.”

“That’s why you became a doctor. It’s why you’re here with me now. You saw that I needed help and you couldn’t leave me alone.” She shook her head and smiled. “Along the way, you’ve given me whole new definitions of truth and justice.”

“So I’m not a creepy, picture-taking thief anymore?”

“Meh.” She waved a flat hand from side to side. Despite the lift to his lips, Pierce’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. He looked like she felt, sandwiched somewhere between resignation and acceptance. She dipped her knee against his. “Between you and me, I’m glad you’re a thieving agent, slash, doctor hero man. Plus, you’re still hot.”

His laugh was more of a huff of air, but it was so endearing that she leaned in, pressing her lips against his cheek. Pierce twisted until his mouth met hers.

The old her would have been casting judgments. But the old her hadn’t met a man like him before. Pierce was a walking contradiction, wrapped in the sweetest mix of masculine nerdiness.

“You’re beautiful, you know.”

She didn’t feel it, covered in dirt and sweat, and yet, the second he’d said it, she knew it to be true. He thumbed her cheek like a piece of fine porcelain...as if he treasured her every bit as much as his precious antiques.

Cobalt blue eyes stared back at her so intensely that she almost turned away. His presence transformed her by the second. Her skin prickled as his fingertips ran up her arms. Her nipples hardened when his lips dipped down to her neck.

Then the mortification set in. With her boulders, the lamest, brownest over-the-head bra was a necessity outside of special occasions. She hadn’t anticipated any such event when she’d hopped on the plane. What was happening was stupid and wild and yet, when he brought her chin up in silent question, she nodded immediately.

Pierce snapped her up, crushing her breasts between them. When he lifted her shirt over her head, her chest burned with humiliation. She wasn’t perfect or svelte by anyone’s measurement, except for maybe his. When she opened her eyes, he looked at her like a starved man. “You are perfection.”

He must have slept with a hundred other women in his life, but she kinda doubted he’d ever looked at them how he looked at her. How could he? After twenty-four hours, they’d done more together than people who’d been dating for years. Their situation was unique, to say the least.

It hit her then that he had seen all of her. He’d stitched her up and she hadn’t felt a thing. He’d been gentle in the worst of moments. Her last one-night stand had been over five years ago. She’d earned this one.

Pierce was smooth and hard in all the right places. And a magician too. One second she was up on a log, the next, he had her down, pinned to the earth with one hand while struggling to undo her grandma bra with the other. “This is some contraption you’ve got here.”

She snorted and slammed her eyes shut, laughing quietly through her mortification. “Let me. Are we pretending that you haven’t tackled it once already?”

“Shit.” He jumped up and pulled her into his lap. “Your shoulder—”

“Is fine. Not that I hate this position either.” She straddled him, wiggling down until he groaned against his throat.

“I kinda want to do a savage thing and rip this bra right off.”

“Not on this bumpy road. Can you...imagine...”

He didn’t look like he imagined anything. The second her breasts were free, his eyes locked on them. His hands followed and soon his lips, to her supreme delight.

Her world could be no more heavenly than this. Here she was, half naked, surrounded by the forests and warm cocoa scents that gave her life, with a man writhing beneath her who seemed to crumble at the sight of her.

“You sure, Melody?”

She grabbed hold of him, rigid between her legs and for the first time in ages, took something just for herself.

P
ierce buried the used condom and tossed the wrapper in the back of the jeep. There wasn’t much else back there, but he consolidated everything they might need into one bag. If a quick exit was required, he might only have a second to grab the antique that had started this magnificent mess.

He cared about the Olmec piece less and less by the second. He ran his thumb over the wrapped edges with the full knowledge that he’d rather be touching Melody.

Every few seconds, he’d turn to watch her dress. Her body was still flushed from their lovemaking. Hell, so was his. Just the thought of her was enough to tighten his belly and make his cock twitch again.

“You’re staring.”

“Can’t help it. I wasn’t too rough with you, yeah? Your shoulder? If you need more...it’s a cutting edge local nerve blocker, but—”

She zipped her pants and toed the log. “If I say yes, will you promise to do it again? After this patch of hair grows back, ya know.” While his face burned with legitimate regret, she wiggled her finger in the air. “Kidding. What are you doing over there? I wasn’t enough? Now you’re playing with your bag of tricks again?”

“Just checking supplies. Everything we need to survive is right in here.”

Leaning against the jeep, he held out his hands until she took them in hers. He drew her close, tasting her and reigniting a passion they didn’t have time to properly quench. “When this is over, we’re going to try that in a bed.”

“You were supposed to be my one-night stand,” she said with lips that brushed along the side of his neck. “Two night, maybe.”

“We could shoot for more.” He backed away, knowing full well that if this continued, their window of opportunity would close.

While he had her here, he clipped an inner waist band holster and gun to her back. “If anything happens, don’t hesitate to use this. Grab the bag, get in the car and drive.”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that.” But she hadn’t looked at him when she’d said it. Maybe she was just starting to realize the level of danger her quest for justice had put her in. Hopefully, she was right. On the chance that she wasn’t, he wouldn’t leave her unprepared.

As before, they drove up the lane to the facility without interruption. Factory didn’t describe it. The grounds were too empty for that. This was Chernobyl, the morning after. Nothing here but three cars in an otherwise massive empty lot.

He made note of the tires. Fresh road sludge still clumped beneath the mud flaps. No heavy duty trucks around. This all lent creditability to the theory of corporate theft. Those guys were easy to deal with. A little strong-arming and they usually caved. “Ask for a review of the facility when we get inside.”

“I’d planned on it,” she said, eyes scanning the length of the complex. “This is creepy, right?”

“Everything’s creepy with you,” he said with a grin. He opened his mouth to add more, but a clanging door stilled all conversation.

“Noah,” Melody shouted with the best fake enthusiasm he’d seen in a while, then jumped out of the car.

This
was the man she’d trusted with her money?

If there was one thing in the world Pierce hated, it was stereotypes. But this guy...

Pierce followed close behind as he sized Noah up. He’d envisioned Noah as...well...Noah, complete with a long beard and robe. That was dumb. This Noah was a freaking Nordic lumberjack without the plaid. He had muscles on muscles that dwarfed his other muscles.

“You went into business with the white Mr. T?”

She didn’t answer, aside from flicking her wrist behind her back. “Noah, meet Mr. Jones,” she said, throwing her thumb towards Pierce. “He’s an IRS investigator.”

Okay.
Pierce played along with a nod, still unsure of where she thought this was going.

Noah’s eyes swept them both. He even leaned around, as if to see if they were alone. “Melody. You didn’t call.”

“I couldn’t. Something about discovery.”

Discovery? Did she even know what that meant? Probably not, but it didn’t shut her up.

“He and the government are trying to take over my whole business. I get a tax break for working with small sourced products, as long as I can prove it. Now they’re coming at me with questions about misspent funds. I dunno. Look, help me out. Show the guy around and prove that I’m getting legitimate sourcing for my chocolate. Then I can go home.”

This was dumb. He knew it. Noah sure as hell did too. The man crossed his arms, a neat trick seeing as how they were tree trunks, and stepped forward. “I’m glad you’re here, but this isn’t making any sense, Melody.” He unhooked two wiggling fingers. “Let’s talk inside. Get out of the sun. I’ve got some beers on ice,” he said with a smile that didn’t gleam in his ‘roided up eyes.

That was the first hint.

Melody followed Noah inside. Pierce brought up the rear. He tried to, anyway. But both times he sidestepped to let Noah go ahead, that same lame-ass smile appeared on the man’s face. “After you.”

Those were the second and third hints. He wouldn’t need a fourth.
Right.

Pierce ripped out his gun and shot.

Twice.

Guys that size usually needed a double tap. Melody whirled around with a look of absolute horror on her face.

Pierce shrugged and kicked the lump at his feet. “What?”

*****

M
elody had whipped around at the first groan. Only groan, actually. The next thing she heard was a thud as Noah crashed to the floor. “You killed him?”

Casual as crap, Pierce dropped to search Noah’s pockets. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just shot him. Hold his gun for a minute.”

“What?”

“With tranquilizers. Nothing permanent. He’ll be fine,” he said, rising with Noah’s keys and a cell phone in hand. He tossed both over. “Hold these. I’m going to drag our friend into the next room.”

“No, but why did you do this?”

Pierce paused with his forearms latched between Noah’s armpits. “You did this. The IRS? C’mon. No one was going to believe that. And the guy had a gun. See,” he said, nodding at the object on the floor.

“Well, I froze. I guess.”

Still dragging and walking backwards into another room, Pierce shook his head. “No...no, no. You did the opposite of freezing. You ran, jumped in the fire with a can of kerosene on your back. Then you pulled me along with you. IRS. Geez. One, he saw right through it. Two, I’m not trusting a guy who won’t let me walk behind him.”

She kept her mouth shut at the obvious irony that Noah had rightly felt the same way. “Just because he had a gun didn’t mean he was going to use it on us.”

“You’re referring to the guy who’s been stealing from you?”

“Says the guy who stole from a monastery.”

Pierce ignobly dropped his bundle and shut the double French doors to the side room. “That’s different. I’m one of the good guys,” he said, tapping himself on the chest and walking past her. “We need to get out of the open. Any clue where his office is?”

“No, but the whole bottom layer is refrigerated. I could go down there while you root around up here.”

“You’re insane if you think we’re splitting up.” His fingers crunched around her wrist as he pulled her along.

The building was a strange mixture of house and barn. The massive interior space had few options for them to go. There was the room where Noah was, and closed doors on the opposite side and finally a set of stairs leading above and below. Pierce’s gun was firmly in hand. It looked as natural there as a scalpel. “I need to find his office.”

“I need to see what’s downstairs.”

“No you don’t,” he said, holding onto her like a parent dragging his kid through an amusement park. He peered a room. Looking over his shoulder, she didn’t see anything other than a widescreen TV and a desk. Pierce finally let her go, but put her right to work while he stayed by the door with his gun in hand. “Check for a laptop or tablet.”

A shiver of excitement skipped down her back. She should be horrified that her life had come to this, and she mostly was. But on the same day that she’d made love to a beautiful man
and
been shot at, now she was secret agenting herself through a strange house.

She allowed herself to savor it as she opened drawers with her fingertips, feeling for levers and hidden latches as she’d seen in spy movies. Each time she almost felt bad about it, she reminded herself that Noah was taking her mother’s retirement money.