Five #2
After a workout so intense she’d actually forgotten about her larger-than-normal audience, Norah tried to decide whether she loved or hated assisted stretching. As Dash pressed on either side of her lower back, encouraging her to stretch just that little bit further, her hamstrings locked up in panicked protest before finally grudgingly releasing. His hands burned her skin through the fabric of her top, and she mentally grumbled at Cara for putting the term “sinewy” into her brain. Before that excruciating conversation, Norah had never put much thought into men’s hands, and now she couldn’t stop obsessing about Dash’s.
Thanks to her twisting thoughts, she didn’t notice when Dash released her, and she stayed bent over in the stretch until a clearing throat made her straighten. One of the gym members hovered over her, offering a smile and a hand up. Norah hid a grimace. She wasn’t a fan of touching people, especially complete strangers—and sweaty strangers at that. Pretending she didn’t see the oversize mitt, Norah got to her feet under her own power. Once upright, she concentrated a little too hard on dusting off her leggings just so she wouldn’t have to make eye contact.
“Are you done hogging the new member?” the stranger asked, and she recognized his voice as belonging to the man obstacle she’d dodged when she’d first arrived at the gym. “And are you going to introduce me?”
“No,” Dash said flatly, and Norah ducked her head to hide her pleased smile.
“Why not?” From the laughter clear in his voice, the burly stranger wasn’t offended by Dash’s curtness. “It’s the least you can do when your gym is basically a sausage fest.”
Ignoring the last part, Dash gave an annoyed grunt. Unlike the other man, he didn’t sound at all amused. “She doesn’t want you hitting on her. This is a gym, not Tinder. Stop bothering us, and go practice your side kicks. They still need work.”
Norah couldn’t hide her smile that time. She was the worst at turning away unwanted attention, but apparently Dash was the best—even better than Chloe Ballister. If he wasn’t Gigantor-size, she’d carry him around in her pocket so she could pull him out to act as a buffer for any awkward social interaction. It would be so wonderful not to have to deal with pushy guys when all she wanted was a cup of coffee or groceries or to work out in peace. If only he’d been there during her encounter with Laken last night, he could’ve sent the woman scurrying away, and their unpleasant coffee date might never have had to happen.
With a good-natured grumble, the other guy finally took the hint and wandered off. Norah watched him go, but the sight of the other gym patrons eagerly taking in the encounter made her stomach tighten. She snapped her gaze back to Dash. It was much easier to pretend they were alone in the gym if she didn’t look at everyone else.
“Good job today,” he said gruffly, and Norah blinked.
“What?”
“Good job.” He spoke the words a little louder this time, and she allowed the praise to soak in and warm her from the inside out. “Especially with an audience.” He swung an arm to indicate the people around them.
Although everyone had returned to whatever they’d been doing once Dash sent the pushy guy away, Norah still felt the burn of many eyes on her. It had taken a boatload of concentration to push her self-consciousness away and focus on what Dash was trying to teach her.
“Thank you,” she said, tucking his praise into a safe place in her mind where she could take it out and bask in it later when she was alone. “See you on Friday?”
“Yeah, but not here,” he said. “I’ll text you the address.”
Norah blinked, startled by this change in their routine. She knew he had to have a good reason to switch training locations though, so she just nodded.
His mouth tightened a little. “Heard anything else from the hacker?”
“Yeah.” Norah grimaced. While floating in a happy sea of endorphins and Dash’s attention, she’d forgotten about Leifsen for an hour. Real life returned with a crash. “Last night.”
At her words, Dash seemed to grow another couple of sizes as he drew himself up. “What’d he do?” he growled. Before she could answer, he glanced over her shoulder and asked, “Hungry?”
“Uh…yeah?” The quick change in conversation made her answer tentative, and she glanced behind her to see what he was looking at. A couple of guys were stretching on nearby mats, but they appeared to be minding their own business.
“Let’s go.” Putting a hand against her back, he ushered her toward the door. “Davies!” he called across the gym.
“Yeah?” a guy responded, using his glove to stop the speed bag he’d been pummeling.
“Going to lunch. Watch the place.” Dash waited for the other man’s nod before grabbing his jacket and Norah’s bag from one of the storage cubbies and using his back to push open the door.
“We’re…going to lunch?” Norah felt a little like she’d been swept up in a muscle-bound tornado.
“You’re hungry, I’m hungry, and I don’t want an audience to hear our conversation.” Without dropping his hand from her lower back, he steered her left. “Especially those gossip-loving drama queens.”
She snorted a laugh at the description, startling herself. Everything was happening really fast, and her mind was buzzing. The heat from his hand on her back soaked into her muscles, giving her a lot to process. Add in the fact that she was pretty sure this could be considered a date, and her frantic thoughts refused to fall into any sort of logical order.
Worried about what might pop out of her mouth if she opened it, she kept her lips closed and concentrated on walking. It was another gorgeous fall day, and the sidewalk was busy. She expected to have to dodge other pedestrians, but everyone was quick to get out of Dash’s way. When she noticed the odd way people glanced at him and then carefully averted their eyes as they gave him a wide berth, she turned her head and studied him. Was it his size? His obvious strength? Or was it the severe downward twist of his mouth that made people wary?
“What?” he asked.
Blinking as she was pulled out of her thoughts, she met his gaze. “What?”
“Why are you looking at me like you want to dissect me in a lab?”
Another jolt of laughter escaped, and she marveled at how easily this grumpy man could get her to laugh. “I was just trying to figure out why people seem scared of you.”
Giving a grunt, he turned his head to face forward again. “Because I’m scary.”
She laughed again. Despite his sour expression, the man was funny. “No, you’re not.”
“I am.” He sounded almost offended that she didn’t find him terrifying.
“You’re objectively not scary.”
“Objectively?” The corner of his mouth tipped up, making him even less intimidating. “If you’re the only one who believes that, then you can’t say objectively. That’s pretty much the definition of subjectively .”
When she couldn’t think of a good counterargument, her shoulders twitched in a shrug. It had been an uncharacteristically inaccurate word choice for her to make, but she was feeling weirdly protective of the man by her side. “They’re idiots then. I don’t know how they survive if they’re that bad a judge of who’s scary.”
“Who do you think is scary?” He guided her across the street through a break in the traffic, giving her a good idea of where they were headed for lunch. Sure enough, he opened the door to her favorite Thai place, and her mouth immediately started watering as she walked inside. The hostess showed them to a red booth in the corner, and Dash waited for her to sit before sliding into the seat across from her. After the hostess handed them menus and left, he looked at her, raising an inquiring eyebrow.
“Who do I think is scary?” she repeated. She was distracted enough by the menu that she answered without filtering her thoughts first. “Leifsen, although I pretend he isn’t because he wants me to be scared, so showing fear would be letting him win. Sonny Zarver, a skip my sister brought in who liked to set booby traps and wrapped me in explosives once. Stuart Powers, one of the treasure-hunters trying to find the necklace Mom stole, because he’s an amoral worm who’ll do anything—no matter how awful—for money, but he always seems to manage to wiggle out of punishment. I could keep going, since most people scare me, but you don’t. You say what you think, and you’ve never actually punched me in the face, despite all the opportunities you’ve had. You’re the opposite of scary.” Settling on an entrée, she glanced up from her menu and saw that Dash’s expression had gone ice cold.
“Wrapped. You. In. Explosives.” Each word was carefully enunciated with a pause in between, clipped rather than his usual grumbly rumble. “Where is Sonny Zarver?”
“Why?” she asked, a little surprised that she felt pleased by his ferocity on her behalf rather than nervous. It was a novel feeling to have someone want to fight her battles for her. “So you can find him and kill him for me?”
“No.” The coldness in his expression lightened, although she could tell he was trying to hold on to his frozen rage. “So I can find him and kill him for me .”
A laugh escaped her, and curiosity and amusement erased the last of the fury in his eyes, although his scowl stayed in place. “You’re too late. My sister caught him and dumped him back in jail.”
He grumbled a little but subsided when a server approached. As soon as their orders were taken and their menus swept away, Dash continued their conversation as if there hadn’t been an interruption. “Let me know when he gets out.”
Leaning back, she studied him. “I doubt he’s going to get out anytime soon. Probably not for fifty or sixty years.”
He mirrored her action, resting against the bench seat. His knees brushed hers under the table, and she jumped at the contact before shifting her legs out of the way. After working with him for ten sessions, she’d gotten used to how big he was, but seeing him take up an entire bench seat startled her anew. She wondered what it was like to constantly take up so much space. She’d always felt overly conscious of staying out of people’s way, and she was small.
“Things don’t always go the way they should,” he said. “Let me know.”
It seemed silly to argue about an improbable hypothetical, so she just gave a half shrug and nod of agreement.
“Good.”
The word was basically a grunt, which made Norah want to smile again. Even though John, Henry, and now Bennett had been around the house a lot recently, she wasn’t used to spending much time with men, especially such an oversize and utterly masculine example as Dash was proving to be. It was a little like studying an alien species, discovering the similarities and differences. She was intrigued but still a little uncertain as to how to act, especially now that they weren’t punching each other.
“Tell me about the hacker.”
Norah frowned slightly, confused. “I already did.”
“You said he was harassing you again last night. What exactly did he say?”
She paused, mentally debating whether she should share. Since he already knew about Leifsen, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to give him more details. “I was working on Cara’s laptop last night, and the same type of text box popped up. He asked if I was trying to avoid him. So I asked where he was, and he said it wouldn’t be fun if he just told me. Then he asked if I was scared—”
A low sound from Dash interrupted her. When she paused and raised her eyebrows, he just gestured for her to continue.
“I asked why he thought I’d be scared of a guy hiding behind his computer—”
This time, Dash’s interruption was a short laugh.
“He asked if that meant I wanted to meet him and said a bunch of nonsense about us being super geniuses while everyone else is a cockroach, and then I told him to stop hacking my computer and shut it down.”
Dash’s sharply cold gaze had returned, and he was frowning so severely that his mouth had turned white at the corners. “Don’t like that.”
Unbidden, her smile came again. It seemed like an odd time to be amused, but there was something about the way Dash so calmly understated things, even while his true emotions were evident, that both reassured and entertained her. “Me either. Especially because I think he helped the people who kidnapped my sister.”
Nothing changed in his face except for a small tic beneath his left eye, but Norah could somehow feel the fury pouring off him. “Explain.” It sounded as if his teeth were locked together.
“We don’t have any proof,” she felt compelled to say in order to be completely honest, “but Leifsen’s been charged with deactivating alarm systems in a number of burglaries. When Cara was taken…” She had to pause for a moment to swallow against a suddenly tight throat. It had been too recent and too terrible, and the memories threatened to overwhelm her. Dash’s hand settling over hers brought her back to the moment, away from those torturous hours when they didn’t know if Cara was alive or dead. He squeezed her fingers gently before withdrawing, and she had to stop herself before she caught his hand again.
The server arrived with their soup, and she was grateful for the time to get herself together. She took a few spoonfuls before looking up at Dash again. “The alarm was disabled at our house right before Cara was taken. It’s only supposition, but there’s a chance that Leifsen was involved.”
His fingers tightened around the handle of his spoon, and she found his white knuckles strangely appealing. His shared outrage that Leifsen was running around town, harassing her and committing who knows what other crimes, made Norah feel as if she wasn’t alone. She and her sisters had pretty much raised themselves, and it had been the Pax sisters against the world for her entire life. There was something so tempting and wonderful about them having actual help.
Despite his obvious outrage, he deliberately ate a mouthful of soup before speaking. “Got any ideas where this…guy might be holing up?” The way he paused before saying “guy” made her think he had swallowed a much harsher term.
“Actually, I do.” The thought of actively looking for Leifsen rather than waiting passively to see if he’d come after her was surprisingly satisfying. She smiled as she reached for her bag. She dug out her notebook and placed it on the table. “I haven’t written up a formal report yet, but all my notes are in here.”
Cocking a brow at her, he allowed one side of his mouth to curl up in a way that had her beaming back at him. “Want to go hunting?”
If anyone else had asked, her response would’ve been an enthusiastic no , but the thought of joining forces with Dash and dragging creepy Devon Leifsen out of whatever hole he was hiding in wasn’t as terrible as it could be. Leifsen thought he’d left her cowering in her bedroom. She might be scared, but she wasn’t helpless, not anymore. Besides, being with Dash made her feel both protected and powerful. He’d keep her safe until she felt ready to step away from his solid bulk to throw a couple of unexpected punches…and maybe a knee to the groin. This was her stalker after all, the guy who helped kidnap her sister. She knew she couldn’t go after Leifsen alone, and she’d accepted that, but here was Dash, offering his services as coach, moral support, and bodyguard. How could she pass up the opportunity?
“I guess?” she said, making Dash bark out a laugh. “One of his associates is in a band that’ll be playing at Dutch’s on Saturday night. I was going to tell Molly so she could check if he shows up, but we could go instead?” Her nerve broke, turning her last statement into a question.
“Saturday night then. We’ll track him down.”
His eyes gleamed, and she felt her stomach jump in response—either in nervousness or excitement for the upcoming chase. Her first instinct was to analyze the new sensations she was experiencing, but then she mentally cut herself off. She was going to roll with it, allow herself to do something without examining everything that could go wrong.
After all, if she got into trouble this time, she’d be with Dash, and she’d bet he could keep them both safe. She felt her smile grow, stretching across her face until she knew she was beaming as she flipped open her notebook.
“Here’s what I’ve learned about Leifsen so far.”
***
As Norah cautiously got out of Cara’s car, she wondered for the fiftieth time whether she’d entered the address Dash had sent her into the GPS wrong. The directions had taken her out of Langston and into the foothills, telling her she’d arrived at the Devil’s Thumb trailhead. Even when Dash rounded his parked SUV and walked toward her, she still felt off-kilter, like she was in the wrong place.
“Why are we here?” she asked, eyeing the trees bordering the small parking lot suspiciously. Mountain peaks poked up over the tops of the evergreens, looking beautiful and majestic but also making the location feel extra…wild. She wasn’t very comfortable with wild . She did much better with places that’d been domesticated and tamed, like Dash’s gym or her bedroom.
“Training.” Before she could ask why they couldn’t have stayed in civilization to train, he was already walking toward the start of the hiking trail. She hurried to catch up, looking around suspiciously for bears or moose or, even worse, ticks. There was a reason she didn’t hike unless Felicity was in drill-sergeant mode. Even though Norah lived right next to a national forest, she still felt ill at ease in trees or open fields or mountains or…well, anywhere nature-y basically.
“What’s wrong with training in the gym?” she asked, watching her feet as she scrambled up a rocky incline.
“Too controlled.” He didn’t sound winded in the slightest as he strode along the uneven, uphill trail as if he were walking on a paved sidewalk. “You need to be able to defend yourself in real-life situations.”
Although she couldn’t argue with that, she still wasn’t excited about more wilderness time. Felicity dragged her and her other sisters through the woods on a regular basis. Couldn’t that be considered sufficient outside training? “What if I promise to stay in heavily populated areas?”
He turned his head enough to give her some serious side-eye. “When your sister was kidnapped, where’d they take her?”
“Into the mountains,” Norah answered, confused by the non sequitur.
“So you stayed home and let your other sisters go after her?”
“Of course not.” Norah frowned at the idea that she wouldn’t at least attempt to rescue Cara, then sighed as she got his point. “Fine. Let’s do this then.”
She could see the corner of his mouth quirk up the tiniest bit. Despite her discomfort with all things outdoorsy, she still felt a dart of pleasure that she’d almost gotten him to smile.
They hiked on in silence, broken only by the occasional clink of a disturbed piece of shale or the whistle of a bird. As always when she was with Dash, that quiet felt comfortable. Norah peered up at the endlessly tall evergreens, the patches of sky between the branches an almost dizzying deep blue. When the trees thinned, she could catch glimpses of the mountain peaks towering over them. Despite her continued unease, she had to admit to herself that it was breathtakingly gorgeous.
Her toe caught an uneven rock, making her trip. Dash glanced back as if checking on her. Once he saw she’d regained her balance, he turned to face front again. She kept her eyes on the trail in front of her after that.
“This way,” Dash said, turning off the path into a small clearing.
Happy to not be hiking uphill anymore, Norah followed, looking around. The grass was sparse on the rocky ground, and she hoped they wouldn’t be working on grappling during this outside training session. Rolling around on shale would be painful.
“You’re almost always going to be smaller than your attacker,” he said, facing her.
Since this was a statement of fact and not a question, she stayed quiet and waited for him to continue.
“What move gives you the best chance of survival if you’re attacked?”
The answer seemed too obvious, so she paused for a second to review what he’d asked in case she’d missed a trick. The question seemed honestly straightforward, so she said, “Running away.”
Although his expression didn’t shift, she could still tell he was pleased by her answer. “Exactly. I’ve been neglecting your running training.”
“I don’t feel neglected,” she hurried to say, holding back a grimace. Norah didn’t understand the appeal of running. During all the miles Felicity made them do, she always waited for the promised endorphins to kick in, but they never had.
He barked a laugh at that but quickly regained his usual stern expression. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll put you in a hold. You’ll break it and run. Then I’ll chase you.”
A shiver ran through her, not from her usual anxiety but from something like…anticipation? “You’ll chase me?” she echoed. Saying the words gave her another not-fear shiver.
His chin tipped up in one of his short nods. “See how long you can evade me before I catch you.”
Catch me? She couldn’t say the words out loud, worried that they’d hold some of the eager excitement that seemed to be taking over her body at the moment. She could only stare at him silently as he stepped toward her and grabbed her wrist. Easy one , she thought, her muscle memory moving her body before she even consciously planned it. Stepping closer, she lifted her knee for a groin strike, careful not to actually make contact. At the same time, she twisted her wrist so her thumb was toward her face, pulling free of his grip.
Once she was out of his hold, she hesitated for a fraction of a second, not used to the new next step of the exercise, until Dash growled, “Run.”
His command unfroze her legs, and she darted out of the clearing, weaving between the trees, her heart pounding more from adrenaline than exertion. As she turned right sharply, her shoe slid on the grit covering the hard ground, and she almost went down to one knee. She caught herself, launching off the other foot back into a run, but it was too late. Strong hands gripped her waist, lifting her off the ground.
She shrieked with surprise, but no part of her was afraid. After all those sessions in the gym, she knew Dash’s grip, and she felt completely safe in his hold—despite the fact that she was dangling off the ground. He lowered her to her feet, and she gave an exhilarated laugh as she turned to face him. “Again. I can do better.”
“I hope so.” Although he was frowning, she was pretty sure he was amused. “I caught you in just a few seconds. And run toward the main trail next time. More likely to find other people there.”
This time, he put her in a choke hold, his right arm snug around her neck but not so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. She paused for a moment, surprised by how strangely comforting it was having him wrapped around her like he was her weighted blanket. The thought seemed so out of place and deeply weird that her hesitation lengthened until he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Except for unexpected emotions, there wasn’t anything wrong really, so she answered, “Nothing.”
“Why aren’t you freeing yourself then?” he asked without loosening his hold. “I know you’ve got this one down.”
She did have it down. They’d drilled escaping choke holds over and over until she was pretty sure she could do this in her sleep. “Just…stuck in my head.”
“Well, get unstu—” He broke off with a grunt as she tucked her chin and pressed her hands against his elbow, turning to the right and taking his arm with her. She snuck in a hammer punch, pulling it so her fist just tapped his back over his kidney. Free from his hold, she bolted immediately, determined to evade him for at least a few more seconds this time.
As she ran, that same excitement built inside her. She knew this was training and completely safe, but it felt more like a game with the slightest edge of danger. The knowledge that someone was likely right behind her, ready to grab her, should’ve terrified her. It would’ve terrified her in any other situation or, more accurately, with any other person.
Dash was different. He was safe.
Taking his advice about heading back to the main trail, she turned and ran parallel to it, not wanting to give a hiker a heart attack by crashing through the underbrush right in front of them. Her lungs tightened a little in warning, adding a slight wheeze to her exhales, and she knew she needed to find a hiding spot before her asthma kicked up a fuss about the extended sprint. She managed to keep her feet under her this time as she ran, even though she was scoping out the trees in front of her.
Not that one. Or that. Nope, not that one either. There! She saw just what she needed and would’ve smiled if she wasn’t sucking air. Perfect.
Making a beeline to the cottonwood tree with conveniently low branches, she started to scramble up. She only made it five feet off the ground before a large hand wrapped around her ankle and gave a tug. It wasn’t a hard pull, but it was just enough to send her off-balance, and she toppled right into Dash’s arms, giggling as she fell, trusting him completely. There was no way Dash would let her hit the ground.
He laughed—short and rough—as he shifted her in his arms so they were face-to-face and her feet were still dangling above the ground. His amused expression faded, replaced by one that looked…hungry, maybe? Norah stared at him, a part of her mind registering how close their faces were, but most of her was focused on the way his pupils were dilating until the dark brown of his irises had almost disappeared. Her mouth felt dry, and she swallowed, her tongue darting out to lick her bottom lip. His intense gaze dropped to her mouth, which made her stop breathing for a second.
He set her on her feet abruptly, startling her. “Better,” he said, his voice gruffer than usual. “Got to be careful about hiding instead of running though. You don’t want to be trapped.”
Off-balance, Norah just continued to stare at him, uncertain of what had just happened but not wanting to overthink it, especially since she was pretty sure he’d experienced a moment of attraction.
Attraction to her .
In fact, there’d been a moment, right before he’d broken the spell, when she’d wondered if he was going to kiss her. Her face went hot at the idea.
“Ready?” he asked.
Her first thought was that he was asking if she was ready to be kissed, and she felt her skin flame hotter.
“You did great on escaping the choke hold, so let’s do a double wrist grab this time.”
“Right!” The word came out too loud, startling a nearby bird into silence. “Training. I’m ready to…train.”
As his fingers wrapped around her wrists, somehow managing to warm her entire body in the process, she forced herself to concentrate on the drill. Even if he had considered kissing her for a brief moment, that had passed, and she needed to focus on the reason they were here in the wilderness.
Training. He was her trainer, not her boyfriend. Even as she broke from his hold and ran through the trees again, she couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like to have Dash for a boyfriend.
She couldn’t hold back a beaming smile at the thought.
Amazing . It’d be amazing.