Chapter Six

The faint morning light streaming through the small camper window cut across Jake’s eyes, and he was instantly awake. It only took a second to realize that it wasn’t the sun that brought him out of a satisfying sleep with the woman he wanted lying in his arms. No, it was something else entirely.

Chris moaned, as he kissed her relaxed lips, slowly bringing her out of sleep. She grinned beneath the feather-like caresses, then went rigid in his arms. He knew she heard the odd noises too. Her eyes snapped wide, and he pressed a finger to her lips. Rising up on his elbows, he peered between the crack in the curtains, but saw nothing. He wasn’t surprised, the noise seemed to come more from beneath the RV than around it.

With careful precision, doing his best not to make a single sound, he climbed from the bed and slid into his pants. Chris, with worry written all over her beautiful face, sat up and snagged the baggy shirt she’d worn to bed. The sight of her breasts exposed as she lifted her arms above her head to slip on the shirt had him pausing. Oh, how he’d much rather climb back in bed and love her again. But there was an unknown outside, and they seemed to be up to something with the camper. Could be anything, explosives, cut lines, or maybe stashing some of their contraband underneath, whatever they were doing, he didn’t like it.

He pulled his gun from his bag, flicked the safety off and paused to wait for Chris. There was no doubt she’d be right on his heels the minute he stepped outside, so he may as well wait for her and orchestrate things as safely as possible.

She slipped her hot pink panties on, picked up her weapon from the counter, then turned to him with a nod. He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face at the picture she made. Hair mussed, ancient t-shirt with the word ‘Diva’ stamped across it, and those damn pink panties peeking out from beneath. He could love this woman, probably already did.

She cocked her head at him with a smirk, oblivious to what was really going through his mind.

He held out his hand to her, and she tip-toed over to him. Snaking his arm around her waist, he pulled her against him for one last kiss, before whispering into her ear on how this was going to go down.

“Stay out of the doorway as much as you can, and wait for my signal to come out.” If they stepped out together, whoever was outside could pick them both off with little trouble. By going first, he could at least give Chris a chance.

“You’re not going to tell me to stay put?”

“Not safe, not knowing what they’re up to, and you wouldn’t stay if I told you to, anyway.”

She grinned and pecked him on the lips. “You are a very smart man.”

Not smart enough if he couldn’t figure out a way to get her to move in with him.

With another quick kiss, he moved her aside and eased to the door. There was no way he’d get it open silently, but he did his best, then leapt to the ground, landing in a crouched position. With his gun poised, ready for anything, he quickly surveyed the area beneath the camper and the immediate vicinity, his stomach in knots.

Beneath the RV hung a piece of duct tape. Whatever it had been holding to the underside of the camper was gone. The hand-off was complete.

He slowly straightened and looked at Chris’ blonde head peeking out from behind the kitchen counter. How could he be so stupid? How could he have let her perfect body, that twinkling smile, those bright blue eyes con him so easily?

She eased out of her hiding place, a puzzled look on her face. “Jake, what is it? Is it okay to come out?”

“Yeah,” he said, disgusted with himself, and spun away. He may as well take a look around and see if they left any clues, but he knew it was probably a waste of time.

The dirt around the site was torn up from the night before, so new tracks would be impossible to isolate. He crossed the compound to the small shed, and eased inside, gun ready. He may be the class chump of the year, allowing Chris to lead him around by his pecker, but he wasn’t going to let his guard completely down until he was sure they were alone. And then he was going to do a little interrogation. It was time to get some answers.

The shed looked like it had recently been ransacked, not the result of the careful search his guys had done the night before. And dust motes still stirred through the air in a streak of morning light. Whoever crawled under the RV to retrieve the package had checked the shed as well.

That made him pause. If they knew where the drugs were stashed, then why bother looking in the shed?

“Find anything?” Chris asked, startling him from his thoughts.

“No,” he snapped.

“Oookay. Well, I’m going to make some breakfast while you play cops and robbers,” she said with a smirk, then turned back toward the camper.

He watched her pink panties sway as she stomped away, her gun lax by her side, but her back was ramrod straight. She was ticked, but was it because he was on to her or simply because he’d been brusque? Raking his fingers through his hair, he went over the facts again, but all the questions still led back to Chris.

Taking a deep breath, attempting to build a wall around his feelings for her, he went back to the camper to get some answers.

She’d slipped on some lounge pants and was filling the coffee pot with bottled water when he stepped inside. She cut her eyes at him as he moved closer.

“How many are there?” he asked.

She closed the lid on the coffee maker, then pushed the brew button. “How many what?” Turning, she opened the refrigerator and pulled out some eggs.

“Dealers, connections…hell, states!”

She put the eggs on the counter and looked at him with such a puzzled expression, he could almost believe her. He moved in close and placed his hands on the counter, surrounding her. She leaned back as far as she could, but he had her trapped against the counter. She was afraid, he could see it in her eyes. That was a sure sign of her guilt, if he ever saw one.

“I saw where it was,” he said. “Now tell me how many connections you have. I want names, places, all of it.”

A quiver of fear shuddered through Chris. For a moment the old fears gripped her like a vice. They were all alone in the middle of nowhere, he could do whatever he wanted, and she didn’t stand a sliver of a chance.

But this was Jake, she told herself. The man who’d made fabulous love to her just hours before. The first man to fill her mind with possibilities of a future, of a future with him. He wouldn’t hurt her.

Furious with herself for letting her old horrors shade her thoughts, she took a deep breath and stared him down. Whatever he was blathering on about certainly had him angry, but she’d be damned if she’d let him take it out on her. She was nobody’s punching bag, physically or emotionally, not anymore.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she snapped. “And if you don’t want raw eggs cracked over your thick skull, you’d better step back and explain why the hell you’re so pissed off.”

He straightened, releasing her from the cage of his arms, and stared at her like she had two heads or something. “There’s a strip of duct tape hanging from the bottom of the camper. Something was there, but isn’t now.” His gaze bored into hers.

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. He was talking about the drug trafficking. It was painfully obvious. She managed to hold down the lump in her throat, but her eyes were beginning to burn. “And you think I’m involved?”

She’d been accused of many things by her father, by the man who thought she was a waste of space, and it had hurt, but not nearly as much as Jake’s distrust. “Answer me,” she said though clenched teeth.

“Yes.”

That one word cut through her like a razor. She gripped the edge of the counter to keep from collapsing to the floor, her knees had turned to jelly. “Get out.”

His gaze narrowed. “Not until I have some answers.”

“You won’t find any in here.” She shoved past him to the bedroom then slammed the door and flipped the lock. It wouldn’t keep him out, but it would give her a few moments to herself where she could wrestle her nerves back in line and stop the rush of tears begging to be released. For a moment there she’d actually considered staying. For a moment she thought that all men weren’t pigs. For a moment, she believed in fairytales.

Jake stood there for several seconds trying to untangle his feelings. The evidence was there, but his gut was telling him something different. Could she have truly just been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Last night one of the gang was shot and Chris called it in. If she’d been working with them, it would throw suspicion away from her, but would she risk the others getting caught and fingering her?

“No.” She was too smart for that, he realized. Sinking to the unmade bed, he put his head in his hands. He really was a chump. He’d just told the woman he was pretty sure he was in love with that she was a suspected drug runner. Hell, accused her point blank, was more like it. And he had a terrible feeling she would never forgive him for it.

But the tape. What the hell was that about?

He jerked on the rest of his clothes, packed up his bag and threw it into his truck. Snatching a flashlight from his glove box, he decided to take a closer look under the RV. He wriggled on his back underneath the giant and carefully examined every inch. Especially the area where the tape still dangled.

He ran his hand over the strip, his gut clenching. It was fresh tape, not a mark on it, no mud, no oil, nothing to show that it had been there for any length of time, and especially not on the road.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. They’d stashed the drugs under the RV after Chris had parked it. One of them was trying to double cross the others, likely the one that was shot, and the ones that got away last night came back to look for it. That was why the shed had been ransacked.

He heard Chris moving around in the camper and grimaced at how much groveling he needed to do to get back into her good graces. If that was even possible.

After crawling out from beneath the RV and putting away his light and dusting himself off, he found himself standing outside her bedroom door with a weighty feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Somehow he would make this right. He lifted his hand and knocked.

“Go away,” she said, and if he wasn’t mistaken there was a sniffle there at the end.

“I can’t do that, not until I apologize. There are a million things I could say, excuses I could make, but none of it matters. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”

The door flew open and he lifted his gaze to find her red-rimmed eyes glaring at him.

“I’m—I’m sorry,” he said.

Her folded arms fell to her sides and the stiffness in her shoulders seemed to ease. “Why did you think I was involved, other than what happened last night with those guys?”

He went on to explain about the tape and the shed, and apologized again, praying she understood and knew how bad he felt for suspecting her.

“I suppose I would think the same, under the circumstances,” she said, plucking at the hem of her baggy shirt, not meeting his gaze.

He crouched down to get a look at her eyes. “Then am I forgiven?”

She peeked at him from beneath damp lashes and nodded. He gently eased his arms around her, and with a weighty sigh, she rested her head against his shoulder.

“I guess we don’t know each other all that well,” she said, her breath warming his chest.

He stroked her back as he pressed his lips to the top of her head. “No, we don’t.” He wanted to say “not yet,” but knew she wouldn’t stay, even if he asked her again, but his mouth decided to give it another try anyway.

“I think you should move into town, sweetheart, and stay at Liddy’s. Or…”

She lifted her head from his shoulder. “What?”

He traced the edge of her face, studied every inch of its softness. “You could stay with me.”

Her gaze warmed as she cupped his jaw. “As much as I want to stay with you, I think—I think it might be best if I left. I still have a job to do, and the sooner I get on the road, the sooner I can get home before winter hits.”

Clamping his eyes closed, he grasped her wrist and pressed a kiss to her palm. He’d tried and failed, but didn’t regret asking.

“Do you, um, have to be at work soon?” she asked, her voice soft and enticing.

He opened his eyes and grinned. “I happen to be off for the next two days.”

With a cat-in-cream smile, she linked her hands behind his head and tipped up on her toes. Brushing her lips across his, she said, “Then I think some make-up sex is in order.”

Chuckling, he lifted her off her feet and carried her back into her bedroom to the bigger bed. He was going to need some maneuvering room for what he had in store.

****

It was time for Jake to get back to work and for Chris to get back on the road. With her gear safely stowed and her car loaded in the rear of the camper, she was ready to set out. Ready to leave Iron Horse, Wyoming behind. She’d miss Liddy, and Mr. Cooper, and all the nice people she’d met…and Jake.

“A girl could love a man like that,” she muttered, her voice scratchy with unshed tears as she slid the key into the ignition.

But that girl wasn’t her. She couldn’t just plant herself in Wyoming on a whim. Could she?

Her gaze met Jake’s where he stood by his truck, his hands in his pockets and a forced smile on his lips. The last two days had been pure heaven. The way he’d made love to her had been the sweetest, most intense experience of her life. But it couldn’t always be like that. Men didn’t fit into her life, not even the really good ones like Jake Conrad. And after all, she had a job to do, traveling the country and writing her stories, and her home was in Virginia.

“Tell yourself a few more whoppers,” she said under her breath.

The camper rumbled to life and she looked out the window. No, it was definitely time to leave if she was actually thinking about staying. She gave Jake one last wave, then pulled out of the campground. It was going to be a very long ride home.