CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“I know you’re glad to have your cast off and to be back at work, but can you please, please keep in mind that you were almost blown up a mere fifty-two days ago?
” Someday she would stop counting, but for now, each day represented one day further away from when she’d come this close to losing him forever.
“Yes, dear,” Boone teased. “So, what do you have planned for your day off?”
He’d gotten his cast off yesterday, and Mike gave him the all-clear. So, naturally, a restless Boone went into the compound at the ass-crack of dawn this morning to get in a run with Eddie.
Luna wedged her phone between her shoulder and ear so she could wash her hands.
“I just checked on the girls really quick and am getting ready to head out to meet Dulce and Carter for a late breakfast.” The girls were what they called Sassy and Patience.
“After that, we’re going to stop by Marigold’s shop and check out the new clothes she got in.” She yanked the towel off the bar to dry her hands and hung it back up, then shifted her phone to her hand and held it to her ear.
Luna hadn’t seen any of them since they came to the hospital to check on Boone. They all wanted to give them time and space to heal, physically and emotionally. Something she and Boone hadn’t thought they needed but ended up appreciating.
“I’m glad you’re doing that,” he said. “You’ve been way too busy babysitting me lately.”
“Not the whole time.” She’d also been busy wrapping up the Pakistan operation and digging into the situation with Eddie’s sister. And she’d been enjoying her time helping their neighbor around the ranch. “Besides, I love you, and I love taking care of you.”
“I love you, too.” Someone called out his name in the background. “I’d better go. Eddie is crying and needs my help on the o-course.”
She smiled when she heard Eddie cursing him in the background for disparaging his skills and ability.
“Okay, I’ll let you go—” Luna stepped out of her bathroom and stopped short of finishing her farewell. “You’re …. you’re alive.” The hand holding the phone dropped limply to her side.
“No thanks to your fucking boyfriend.” Aaron Udall stood in the doorway of their bedroom, leering at her.
“Damn, Rancher’s got good taste.” His creepy gaze dragged over her from head to toe and back up again.
“Then again, he always did like the ladies. You do know he was always quite the man-whore, right?”
“From what I’ve heard, that was more your thing.” His attempt at goading her failed.
Boone had already told her about every woman he’d ever gone out with, and there hadn’t been all that many. At least, not for a guy who looked like Boone and treated women with respect the way he did.
She hadn’t ended her call with Boone, so just in case he was still on the line, she tried to speak loudly enough for him to hear, careful not to be too obvious about it.
Luna gave Udall a once-over.
He had a big knife sheathed at his right hip and a rifle slung across his back.
Other than that, she couldn’t see any other weapons.
Of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t have any.
He wore black gloves, and his jeans, T-shirt, and flannel shirt all appeared to be brand-new.
Heck, his pants still had creases in them from where they’d been folded.
Most notable was the fact he’d dyed his hair red and had a buzz cut, of all things, and he’d shaved his beard and mustache.
He was also extremely thin, with sunken eyes and hollowed cheeks.
“You know, you really should be more careful about setting the alarm.” He scolded her like she was a child. “You wouldn’t want some horrible person to just let themselves in, now, would you?”
Shit. What an idiot she was. She’d intended to dash inside to wash her hands, then head out for breakfast, and hadn’t bothered to take the fifteen measly seconds required to activate the alarm.
“Set the phone over there.” He unsnapped the sheath, slid the knife free, and waggled it in the direction of the nightstand.
Luna made sure to keep some distance between them as she moved across the room.
She set the phone face down next to the picture of her and Boone on the horses and started to lower her hand toward the drawer where she kept her weapon.
Quick as she could—just like she’d practiced with Boone—she jerked it open, and … her 9mm was gone.
“Looking for this?” Udall asked.
She looked over her shoulder, and he had her semiauto pistol dangling from his finger through the trigger guard. He waggled the fully loaded magazine in his other hand.
He tucked the gun in his right coat pocket, the magazine in the other.
“I went ahead and grabbed this, too.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and showed her the can of pepper spray she kept in the nightstand. “You won’t be needing it.”
That was fine. She had five more tucked away all over the house. She even had a big can of bear spray she kept in the barn for when she went riding.
Udall stomped over to grab her phone, and she noticed he had a dramatic limp on his right leg. He turned the phone over to look at the screen, and she held her breath, expecting him to erupt, but he just slid it into his shirt pocket.
Her heart dropped. Had Boone heard anything? Did he know Udall was there?
He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm, and his glove scratched her skin when he hauled her from the bedroom and into the large front room.
“Sit down.” He shoved her down onto their big leather armchair.
It wasn’t far from the kitchen and gave her an unimpeded path through the kitchen and to the back door.
“How did you survive the explosion?” She had to know. “They said the tunnels were pretty much destroyed.”
“I’d explored those tunnels and caves for weeks before taking those girls there.
” He moved around the room, talking as he closed all of the blinds.
“I knew them like the back of my hand. So, after I tossed that grenade, I hot-footed it to a tunnel that came out about a half mile from where your people were set up.” He smirked.
“You forget, I was Special Forces, too.” He checked the lock on the front door.
“I was almost clear when the cave opening collapsed on me and fucked up my leg.” He patted his right leg.
“The only person I could get to help me was some hack doctor from a village about ten miles away from Aliabad. Sonofabitch fucked it up even more, which is why I didn’t get here sooner. ”
“Okay, but how did you manage to get in and out of the country?” Someone was in deep shit for aiding and abetting this guy.
“A C-17 pilot got me onto the base in Charleston in the trunk of his car. I hid in a storage container, and he made sure it was on the manifest for his flight. When I was ready to head back to the States, we basically did the same thing in reverse out of Al Udeid.” He stopped and looked out the large front window that faced the front of the property, then closed the blinds.
His limp seemed to worsen as he moved around the room, making it a weakness she could exploit, if necessary.
You don’t spend your life around a bunch of overprotective alphas without learning a thing or two.
“How much did you have to pay that pilot to betray his oath?” She should probably check her attitude, but this guy tried to kill Boone.
“Mackie got himself into some trouble a while back with a local girl in Afghanistan. Her daddy wasn’t too happy about it and threatened to report him to his command. So, I paid the old man off.” He lifted one shoulder. “Mackie owed me one, and I collected.”
Luna made a mental note of the pilot’s name.
“How did you find this place?” To protect Boone’s anonymity, he’d purchased the property through an LLC that OSI created just for that purpose.
“Mackie saw your people at Al Udeid before they left. After that, it was just a matter of tracking their trip home.” He scoffed. “You’d be surprised what money can get ya.”
Udall’s smile disappeared.
“Q and A session is over. It’s time for you to call my old buddy Boone.” He tossed her phone at her.
She fumbled it in her hands and somehow managed not to drop it.
“Tell him you need him to come home.” Udall moved back over to the front window and peeked through the blinds he’d just closed.
Without knowing for sure whether Boone had heard anything, her smartest course of action was to assume she was on her own.
She immediately started thinking of ways to get herself out of this situation alive.
Her eyes scanned the space, and she noticed her car keys weren’t hanging on the hook by the door. He must have taken them.
Luna became angrier and angrier.
She and Boone hadn’t survived everything that happened only to have this disgusting piece of human garbage take it all away from them.
“I don’t give a shit what you have to say, but you get his ass here and make it believable.” He lifted the strap from his rifle over his head and leaned it against the wall by the front window.
His attention continually returned to the road leading to the property.
“He’s … he’s training today.” She acted like she was scrolling to his number. “What if he doesn’t answer?”
He tugged her gun and loaded magazine from his pockets and slammed the magazine into place with the butt of his hand.
“It would be in your best interest if he does.” He racked back the slide to load a round into the chamber and pointed the gun at her.
Think, Luna, think.
Even if Boone had heard her on the phone, it would take him at least thirty minutes to get home.
Luna was on her own.
“CALL HIM!” he shouted. His face was red, and a vein bulged in the middle of his forehead. “And put it on speaker.”
Luna didn’t like the way his hand shook as he held her pistol. She had no choice but to do as he said.
She tapped Boone’s number and put the call on speaker. It rang three times before he answered.