Cover of Night Read online

  The bottom dropped out of her stomach. What he was wearing told her louder than words that he intended to go after the men who were shooting at them. She released Gena and stood up, galvanized by the sheer, icy terror that seized her. She wanted to scream; she wanted to tackle him and tie him up so he couldn’t go. She refused to let him do this; she couldn’t watch him walk away knowing there was a strong possibility he wouldn’t come back—

  His gaze snagged hers. She saw him take in her white, strained expression. Carefully he stood both weapons in a safe place where they couldn’t be knocked over and then threaded his way across the crowded, cluttered room to her side. People spoke to him, patted him on the shoulder, and he nodded and spoke and traded greetings, but he never paused, never wavered from his course.

  When he reached her, he touched her hand and said, “Are you okay?”

  She felt as if she would choke if she tried to utter a word. She gave a fierce, single shake of her head.

  He looked around, saw there was no privacy to be had for even a moment. “Follow me.”

  Numbly she did, scarcely aware of anything around her as she trailed in his wake, seeing nothing but his back. He led her outside, into the warm sunshine, but stopped while they were still protected by the downward curve of the land. Turning to study her with his pale, steady gaze, he said, “What’s wrong?”

  What was wrong? “Your clothes,” she blurted, unable to formulate a more coherent reason.

  Bewildered, he looked down at himself. “My clothes?”

  “You’re going after them, aren’t you?”

  Understanding dawned. “We can’t just sit here,” he said quietly. “Someone has to do something.”

  “But not you! Why does it have to be you?”

  “I don’t know who else it would be. Look around you. Mario was the youngest man, and he’s dead. Josh could have done it, but he’s got a cracked bone in his leg. Everyone else is older and out of shape. I’m the logical choice.”

  “Screw logic!” she said fiercely, grabbing his shirt with both hands. “I know I don’t have the right to say anything because we aren’t—we haven’t—” She shook her head, fighting a sudden rush of tears. “I can’t lose…not again—”

  He stopped her incoherent babble by dipping his head and putting his mouth on hers.

  His lips were soft, so soft. The kiss was gentle, questing. His lips moved against hers, learning and asking, and she tilted her head up to answer.

  “You have the right,” he murmured, and framed her face with his hands, his fingers sliding into her hair as he took her with a series of tender, hungry kisses, as if he were eating her mouth. She gripped his forearms, digging her fingers into the hard muscles and tendons, holding on for dear life as she sagged against him. His tongue made leisurely forays, touched and stroked and enticed as though he had all the time in the world and couldn’t think of a better way to spend it.

  She had never before been kissed so…contentedly.

  He was aroused; she could feel the hard bulk of his penis against her. She expected to feel his hips move, but he remained still except for his tongue and those soft, soft lips. Warmth glowed to life within her, pushing away her fear, her anger that he would take such a risk when they were hovering on the verge of something that felt so wonderful she could scarcely believe it.

  Leaving her mouth, he pressed kisses on her cheek, her temple, her eyes, then went back to her lips for more.

  If he made love as leisurely as he kissed—oh, dear God.

  “We should go back inside,” he whispered against her mouth, then rested his forehead against hers. “I have a lot to do.”

  She pulled back and looked into his blue eyes. They were as calm as always, but now she recognized the steel core of this man. He wasn’t dramatic; he wasn’t someone who demanded attention—because he didn’t need it. He was supremely certain of himself and his capabilities. He would risk his life for them without a moment’s hesitation.

  She would have stayed out there and argued until they were both drawing their social security checks, but he turned her and somehow herded her back into the basement. A lot of smiling, knowing looks were directed their way, but that wasn’t a surprise, considering how he’d acted last night, and that they’d just now been kissing outside the door. What did surprise her was that no one, absolutely no one, seemed surprised. Apparently, she was the only one who was having trouble coming up to speed on this, but then, she was the only one who had deliberately worn blinders.

  In the irritating way that most men seemed to have, he’d already reverted completely to business mode, gathering with Creed and the other men. Creed even had a notebook and was mapping out something with swift strokes of a pen. Everyone crowded around to hear what was being said.

  “The bridge is out,” Cal was saying. “That was the explosion. The electricity went out right before that, which means they cut the wires. The phones are out, too. From the way the shooters have positioned themselves, their intention is to keep anyone from going for help through the cut in the mountains. They wanted to cut us off and hem us in.”

  “But why in hell are they doing all this? And who are they, anyway?” Walter growled, running his hand through his thinning hair in frustration.

  “I haven’t seen anyone, but my guess is those two guys from last week brought in reinforcements, and as for what they want—” Cal shrugged. “I’d say they want me.”

  “Because you got the drop on them?”

  “And bashed one of them in the head,” Neenah added. She was sitting on the cold concrete next to Creed. She hadn’t strayed far from his side since the night before.

  “I didn’t say it was reasonable,” Cal said. “Some people let their egos get involved, and they turn vicious.”

  “But this—this is so far over the top, it’s insane,” Sherry protested. Seven people were dead. This was way beyond squashed egos. “If they’re that mad, why didn’t they just catch you out somewhere and stomp your ass?”

  “I’m hard to stomp,” he said mildly. “Maybe this is the mob way of saying, ‘Mind your own business.’ I just don’t know.”

  “Mob? You think it’s the mob?” Milly put in.

  That question earned another shrug. “I’d have to say it’s possible.”

  “The geography works against us,” Creed said, pulling the conversation back on subject. He indicated the map he’d sketched. “The river makes it impossible to operate on this side. The current is too fast to ford the river anywhere around here, and those rocks would bash any boat to pieces in seconds. Upriver is a vertical canyon that you can’t go around, so that direction is a no-go.”

  “The land peninsula Trail Stop is on is shaped like a paramecium,” Cal continued. “The bridge was at the tail, and on this side of the tail is the river. We have no land there to work with, and the river is a natural barricade. Right here”—he touched Creed’s sketch—“are mountains only a goat can negotiate. So that funnels us down this side of the paramecium, toward this cut in the mountains, and they’ve sealed that off with shooters. They have thermal scopes, which work best at night, but during the daytime they don’t need the scopes to see. I’ll have to wait until night, and go into the water to dissipate my heat signature.”

  “How long would it take you to get through the cut?” Sherry asked.

  “I don’t have to go through the cut. All I have to do is get by one of the shooters, then I’m behind them and can follow the road.”

  Cate sucked in her breath with an audible gasp. She wasn’t a tactician, but she knew how cold he’d been last night, how close to hypothermia. And the water hadn’t gotten any warmer since then. Who knew how long he’d have to stay in the stream, waiting for the right moment? Then he’d have to walk miles in those cold, wet clothes, and he’d be losing more body heat every moment. And if he was seen by any of them on the other side of the stream, they would be hunting him as if he were an animal, and he would be too cold to evade them. Why wasn’t any