A Game of Chance Read online

  The afternoon was wearing on when Charlie set the helicopter down in the canyon again. He looked up at the light with an experienced pilot’s eye. “You think you have enough time to get that fuel pump put on before dark?”

  “No problem,” Chance said. After all, as he and Charlie both knew, there was nothing wrong with the fuel pump, anyway. He would tinker around for a while, make it look realistic. Sunny wasn’t likely to stand at his elbow the entire time, and if she did he would distract her.

  He and Sunny jumped out of the helicopter, and he leaned in to get his bag. “See you in a few hours.”

  “If you don’t make it back to the airfield, we know where you are,” Charlie said, saluting.

  They ducked away from the turbulence as the helicopter lifted away. Sunny pushed her hair away from her face and looked around the canyon, smiling. “Home again,” she said, and laughed. “Funny how it looks a lot more inviting now that I know we aren’t stuck here.”

  “I’m going to miss it,” he said, winking at her. He carried his bag and the box containing the fuel pump over to the plane. “But we’ll find out tonight if a bed is more fun than a tent.”

  To his surprise, sadness flashed in her eyes. “Chance…once we’re away from here…” She shook her head. “It won’t be safe.”

  He checked for a moment, then very deliberately put down the bag and box. Turning back to her, he put his hands on his hips. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, you can just forget about it. You aren’t dumping me.”

  “You know what the situation is! I don’t have a choice.”

  “I do. You’re not just a fun screw who was available while we were here. I care about you, Sunny,” he said softly. “When you look over your shoulder, you’re going to see my face. Get used to it.”

  Tears welled in her brilliant eyes, filling them with diamonds. “I can’t,” she whispered. “Because I love you. Don’t ask me to risk your life, because I can’t handle it.”

  His stomach muscles tightened. He had set out to make her love him, or at least get involved in a torrid affair with him. He had succeeded at doing both. He felt humbled, and exhilarated—and sick, because he was going to betray her.

  He had her in his arms before he was aware of moving, and his mouth was on hers. He felt desperate for the taste of her, as if it had been days since he’d kissed her instead of just hours. Her response was immediate and wholehearted, as she rose on her tiptoes to fit her hips more intimately to his. He tasted the salt of her tears and drew back, rubbing his thumbs across her wet cheeks.

  He rested his forehead against hers. “You’re forgetting something,” he murmured.

  She sniffed. “What?”

  “I was a ranger, sweetheart. I’m a little harder to kill than your average guy. You need someone watching your back, and I can do it. Think about it. We probably made the news. When we get to Seattle, don’t be surprised if there’s a television camera crew there. Both our faces will be on television. Besides that, we were reported missing to the FAA, which is federal. Information would have been dug up on both of us. Our names our linked. If the mole in the FBI tumbles to who you are, your father’s goons will be after me, anyway—especially if they can’t find you.”

  She went white. “Television?” She looked a lot like her mother; Chance had seen old photos of Pamela Vickery Hauer. Anyone familiar with Pamela would immediately notice the resemblance. As sharp as she was, Sunny also knew the danger of being on television, even a local newscast.

  “We’re in this together.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, then grinned down at her. “Lucky for you, I’m one mean son of a bitch when I need to be—lucky for you, unlucky for them.”

  Nothing she said would sway him, Sunny thought with despair late that night as she showered in the hotel suite he had booked them into for the night—a suite because it had more than one exit. He had been exactly right about the television news crew. Crews, she corrected herself. News had been slow that day, so every station in Seattle had jumped on the human-interest story. The problem was, so had both national news channels.

  She had evaded the cameras as much as possible, but the reporters had seemed fixated on her, shouting questions at her instead of Chance. She would have thought the female reporters, at least, would be all over Chance, but he’d worn such a forbidding expression that no one had approached him. She hadn’t answered any questions on camera, though at Chance’s whispered suggestion she had given them a quick comment off-camera, for them to use as a filler on their broadcast.

  Her one break was that, since it had been so late when they landed, the story didn’t make even the late news. But unless something more newsworthy happened soon, the story would air in just a few hours over millions of breakfast tables countrywide.

  She had to assume her cover had been blown. That meant leaving the courier service, moving—not that she had much to move; she had never accumulated many possessions—even changing her name. She would have to build a new identity.

  She had always known it could happen, and she had prepared for it, both mentally and with actual paperwork. Changing her name wouldn’t change who she was; it was just a tool to use to escape her father.

  The real problem was Chance. She couldn’t shake him, no matter how she tried, and she knew she was good at that kind of thing. She had tried to lose him at the airport, ducking into a cab when his back was turned. But he seemed to have a sixth sense where she was concerned, and he was sliding in the other door before she could give the driver the address where she had to deliver the courier package. He had remained within touching distance of her until they walked into the hotel room, and she had no doubt that, if she opened the bathroom door, she would find him sprawled across the bed, watching her.

  In that, she underestimated him. Just as she began lathering her hair, the shower curtain slid back and he stepped naked into the tub with her. “I thought I’d conserve water and shower with you,” he said easily.

  “Hah! You’re just afraid I’ll leave if you shower by yourself,” she said, turning her back on him.

  A big hand patted her bottom. “You know me so well.”

  She fought a smile. Damn him, why did he have to be so well-matched to her in every way? She could, and had, run rings around most people, but not Chance.

  She hogged the spray, turning the nozzle down to rinse her hair. He waited until she was finished with that, at least, then adjusted the nozzle upward so the water hit him in the chest. It also hit her full in the face. She sputtered and elbowed him. “This is my shower, and I didn’t invite you. I get control of the nozzle, not you.”

  She knew challenging him was a mistake. He said, “Oh, yeah?” and the tussle was on. Before she knew it she was giggling, he was laughing, and the bathroom was splattered with water. She had played more with Chance than she had since she’d been a little girl; she felt lighthearted with him, despite her problems. Their wet, naked bodies slid against each other, and neither of them could get a good grasp on any body part. At least, she couldn’t. She suspected he could have won the tussle at any time simply by using his size and strength and wrapping his arms around her, but he held back and played at her level, as if he were used to restraining his strength to accommodate someone weaker than himself.

  His hands were everywhere: on her breasts, her bottom, sliding between her legs while she laughed and batted them away. One long finger worked its way inside her and she squealed, trying to twist away while excitement spiraled wildly through her veins. Their naked wrestling match was having a predictable effect on both of them. She grabbed for the nozzle and aimed the blast of water at his face, and while he was trying to deflect the spray she made her escape, hopping out of the tub and snatching up a towel to wrap around her.

  He vaulted out of the tub and slammed the door shut just as she reached for it. “You left the shower running,” she accused, trying to sidetrack him.

  “I’m not the one who turned it on.