Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Seeing a complete haze of red—maybe more than ever in my life—I bite out a command. “Aria, head up to the truck.”
I’m so busy focusing on the asshole that’s about to find out just how much Aria isn’t his fucking business that I don’t see Rory slide into the tent behind us.
“What’s going on fellas?”
It’s not the first time I’ve wondered how Rory learned to speak such perfect English if he’s a Russian mercenary. Or why he’s got a name like Rory, but I go by a nickname, so there’s that.
I don’t bother with a reply to his question.
I may or may not be fantasizing about torture.
Aria takes off, muttering something unhappily as she goes, carrying her boots in her hand as she starts traversing the muddy terrain .
It galls me that she’s going to be wandering around with a man that clearly scared her somewhere nearby, but I’m not going to be far behind her as soon as I deal with this ugly-faced fucker.
Another large form appears on my left shoulder. This time it’s Justice. And next to him appears Marshall.
Agile’s running deep.
Brundage glances across the grim faces—the same men that saved him from me earlier—and mutters, “Bunch of jarhead assholes.”
“SEALs,” Marshall corrects. “You were leaving town. Didn’t know this was on the way out.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I speak to Griffon Kane. I work for him. Not you.”
Agent Torres joins the party, killing my brief comfort that he was watching Aria as she left. He hooks his thumb behind him. “Mr. Brundage, a word with you.”
Seeing as the team has things under control, I don’t bother waiting around. With my muscles vibrating, I grab the gear—tanks and bags—and take off up the hill.
Aria’s just scrambled up the steep incline, but I have her in sight which eases some of the constriction in my chest. But the reprieve only makes room to let other confusing thoughts bubble to the surface.
Boyfriend.
Why would she call me her boyfriend?
And what the fuck are up with the scars on her wrists?
When you’ve done the work I’ve done, you’ve seen scars like that before. And nothing good makes that kind of mark all the way around someone’s wrists. They come from being bound by something sharp-edged.
Maybe she had some kind of accident. But deep down, I know that’s not the answer. Every step I take up the goddamned slick ass slope, I get angrier and angrier.
Who would hurt someone like Aria?
The need to get to the bottom of her mystery grows until it’s a pounding drumbeat inside my head.
She startles when I emerge from the trees.
“Just me.”
Nodding nervously, she glances around the trucks as if looking for the next assault. She reaches for one of the bags. “Sorry I left you with all the gear.”
I set her bags on the ground and set the tanks down. “No problem. I can manage it.”
Biting my tongue, holding my questions is harder than I thought.
“What now?” She glances at my bare chest, then quickly away as something repulses her.
It shouldn’t hit me hard, but it does. I tug my shirt over my head, regretting not doing it sooner.
“Now we leave.”
“But—”
I pick up her dive bag and the bag that Griff’s gear is in and head for the back of the truck. “No buts. I’m getting you out of here.”
She fidgets with the button on the cuff of her sleeve and stands there barefoot looking rattled but concerned. “Don’t you need to go up on the mountain to look at the opening for the cavern? I don’t want to keep you from doing your job to search for your missing woman..”
“I did my job. Now we need to make plans for tomorrow’s dive. Justice is on the above-ground search.”
It takes me a few moments to find what I’m looking for, but when I have the package, I close the rear of the truck and the cap .
“Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Aria frowns as she looks down at her feet. She wiggles her toes. “I wasn’t thinking. I just needed out of there.”
I open the door for her. “Hop in, and turn this way.”
Making a grimace, she does as I ask her to. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think about getting the truck dirty.”
I raise my gaze to hers. “I could care less about the truck.”
Confusion clouds her eyes.
I pop open the pack of industrial size hand wipes, and lift her muddy foot. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable on the drive back.”
This elicits a sound from her, but she doesn’t say anything.
When I hold the arch of her delicate foot and clean the mud off, she’s very still.
A heaviness settles into the air between us.
Touching her like this feels…
Fuck. It feels right.
I finish one foot, then hold my hand up for the other.
Squirming she says, “You don’t have to do that, I can?—”
“Shhh. Give me your foot. I want to.”
This time when I look at her, she’s nibbling the corner of her lip, and the memory of kissing her rocks me.
My throat gets tight, my body grows tight including my dick, and I force myself to concentrate on what I’m doing. I can’t make sense of the way Aria makes me feel.
There’s no place in my life for a woman.
Especially a woman like her.
As I wipe the last of the mud off the top of her foot, my thumb and forefinger circle her ankle. The pulse is flying, but she’s as still as a cornered mouse.
“I’m sorry he scared you.”
She tries to pull her foot away, but I keep it in my grip.
“He just took me off guard."
“Care to tell me about the boyfriend remark?”
When she doesn’t answer, I drag a finger along the bottom of her foot. She jumps and makes a throaty sound.
“I’ll get it out of you one way or another.”
I’d like to get a lot more throaty sounds and raspy words out of her.
She laughs in disbelief. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
I set her foot on the floorboard. Drop the used hand wipes into the small trash receptacle that hangs from the back of the seat and buckle her seatbelt. My hand gets dangerously close to places I want to touch.
The tension in my groin grows. Goddamnit. I need to get away from Aria Kane.
Voice rough, I say, “When I need answers I know how to get them.”
Her eyes flare for a second, then she folds her hands nervously. “It just sort of popped out of me—calling you my boyfriend. I’m sorry. I know that puts you in a tough spot. I hoped it would make Adam leave me alone.”
“It doesn’t put me in a tough spot. You’re brother’s already convinced I’m fucking—I mean I’m fooling around with you.”
Griff’s foul attitude makes me hot around the neck. Yes he should be worried about me being around his sister, but give me a fucking break. I’m trying to keep her safe in the middle of what’s clearly turning into a shitshow.
Feeling grumpy, I say, “I’ll deal with him, don’t worry. Let me get out of this wetsuit and we’ll get on the road.”
She stiffens in her seat, her brows shooting up. “But what about the others? Rory and Justice need a ride back, too.”
“They’re grown men.”
She blinks at my response. “Where are we going?”
“Anywhere but here.”
I know where I’m going. Straight to hell.