Chapter 8 Reed
REED
“It’s not steak and lobster, but we won’t starve to death.” I winked at Payton as I stirred hot water into the MREs we’d packed.
Maverick, Payton, and Tarron sat at the long wooden table on the far side of the room.
Payton occupied the bench seat in the corner, Mav on the seat to her right, and the two of them were entrenched in a deep conversation about what had happened.
Tarron sat back with his ankles crossed, his attention locked onto Payton.
I knew that look. He was assessing her, checking to make sure she hadn’t suffered any lasting damage.
We all knew the real trauma came later, when the risk of PTSD slipped in during the late-night hours and stole all sense of peace.
“Thank you, Reed.” Payton tried to smile, but the expression fell flat when she looked back at Maverick. “I still don’t understand how they mistook me for some arms dealer’s daughter.” She shook her head, her blonde hair hanging loose around her face.
A shiver wracked her shoulders, and she drew her hands tight into her lap.
Mav rested his fisted hands on his thighs, hiding the tenseness beneath the table.
To anyone else, he appeared perfectly calm. “We’ve compiled what we know about the group that took you. It’s still unclear who they were attempting to target.”
Tarron stood and crossed to the closet, opening it to retrieve a blanket that he draped across Payton’s shoulders.
She gathered it beneath her chin and closed her eyes.
Fatigue lined her face, but she bore her war wounds with grace. “I kept telling them they had the wrong person. It was probably foolish. They might have killed me once they knew the truth, but I couldn’t sit there and do nothing. I tried to escape a few times.”
I stirred the packets and listened as she recounted one of her escape tactics.
My heart warmed at the way she faced every situation with that same fierce nature.
She’d been terrified, but she refused to let it stop her from trying her damndest to get free.
Her gaze slid to me when I chuckled as she finished her story.
“Something funny?” Her eyebrow arched, the light in her eyes as plain as the heat in my belly.
She’d fascinated me from the moment I laid eyes on her picture.
The way her gaze skimmed over me, lingering and wanting, told me she was intrigued.
I handed her one of the silver MRE packs, making sure our fingers brushed when she took it from my hand.
“Those bastards didn’t stand a chance. You’re hellfire and damnation wrapped up in cotton candy and sunshine.”
Her mouth opened, closed, opened again with a tiny sound of protest. “That’s…” She blushed to the roots of her hair. “Well, hell. That’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.”
Mav shot me a look that might have been censure, but Tarron gave me a thumbs up beneath the table while mouthing “smooth” at me.
Payton fiddled with the blanket, her fingers clenching in the material as she ducked her head, but not before I caught the growing interest in her eyes.
She couldn’t seem to stop looking at us with those deeply perceptive eyes.
The interest sparked hotter and brighter the longer I watched her.
My pulse ran thick and hot, pounding throughout my body with the kind of force that begged for release.
“Reed.” Maverick’s voice cracked the air.
I snapped around to look at him and pushed an MRE into his hands. “Eat before you turn into a monster.”
He fought down a smile, blew out an exasperated breath, and shoved a bite of the chicken teriyaki MRE–his favorite–into his mouth.
Tarron laughed while scrubbing a hand over his lips and taking the MRE from me with a shake of his head. “One of these days, man.”
“What?” I shrugged and ate my food, keeping an eye on Payton the whole time.
Her first bite was tentative, as was the cautious way she examined each of us when she thought we were not looking.
“Nothing.” Tarron finished his meal and threw everything in the trash. “We should get some rest.”
“I’ll take first watch.” I rushed to offer before Mav beat me to it.
The idea of sleeping made my shoulders tight.
I tossed my empty pack in the trash and made a mental note to take the bag out before we left.
The storm hammered down on us, snow slamming into the windows and rattling the glass.
The walls creaked and groaned like old bones riddled with arthritis.
We’d be here a few days at least. I took in the panicked look Payton shot my way. “I doubt anyone will be looking for us, especially in that.” I pointed at the windows. “But there’s no reason for us to take chances.”
“We should all stay close.” Maverick stood and stretched.
Payton watched the movement, taking in everything.
I grinned when Maverick’s stretch showed a band of skin around his waist, and Payton’s mouth fell open in a kind of awed gasp.
Heat stretched taut as a rubber band, forcing me to turn away.
“The couch opens into a bed. There are a couple bedrooms upstairs, but I doubt the fireplaces up there work anymore.” I cleaned up the small mess I’d made in the kitchen and headed to the fireplace along the living room wall.
“Payton, you can have the couch. Maverick and I will take the chairs.” Tarron flopped into the nearest chair and stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles and lacing his fingers together on his stomach.
Maverick took the matching chair across from him after sliding the Murphy bed free from the couch.
Payton eyed the couch and tugged the blanket closer beneath her chin. “I’m not sure I can sleep.”
“You’re safe, Payton.” I gave myself permission to touch her shoulder, nothing more than a soft pat of reassurance, before I settled in the wooden rocking chair and faced the windows. “Get some rest.”
She huffed but stretched out on the bed, rolling onto her side and drawing her knees up to her chest.
The world shrank to this room, this moment.
Mav and Tarron drifted off to sleep with their ability to sleep at the drop of a hat, something we’d all honed over the years as Rangers.
Payton rolled onto her back and crossed her arms behind her head. A huff of breath drifted almost lazily across the room.
I turned my head to steal a look at her and caught her watching me with her head tipped back. She wiggled upright. “I’m not going to be able to sleep yet.”
“Okay.” I shifted so I faced the windows. My gaze slid right back to her an instant later.
Why couldn’t I keep my eyes off her?
I’d seen beautiful women before. Payton was more than that.
I’d known it from the instant I heard her in the old fort, and she cemented the fact when she busted my lip.
“Can I sit with you?” Her whispered plea wrenched my heart out of my chest, leaving me exposed.
I nodded and stood to find her a chair, being careful to pick up the rocking chair and carry it over next to mine so the noise wouldn’t wake Tarron or Maverick.
I wanted this time alone with Payton, a moment just the two of us. I was a selfish bastard but an honest one.
She sat and hooked her heels on the chair’s bottom rung, leaning into the cushioned back with a sigh. “Have you three been friends long?”
“You could say that.” I handed her a bottle of water from the pack at my side.
“How did you meet?”
Her open curiosity and genuineness forced me to be honest. “Army rangers. We were stationed together right after we joined. Kind of bonded over the twenty years we served together, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
A quiet, contemplative look tightened the skin around her eyes. “How long were you with the Rangers? You’re not still serving, right?”
“No.” I forced my hands to remain resting on my knees, driving my fingertips into my legs to stop the instant surge of anger at the reminder of our destroyed careers.
Not the kind of conversation I wanted to have tonight.
“We’ve been out of the Rangers for a while.
Several years.” I clarified when Payton gave me another of those arched brow looks I was coming to recognize as a sign of her pondering just how much you were sharing.
“Maverick started a private business, and Tarron and I joined him.”
“How old are you?” She blushed as soon as she said it. “Sorry. You just don’t look old enough to have served that long.”
I chuckled. The sound melded with the storm outside, a storm that was building within me as it threatened to reach a breaking point.
“We’re in our forties. Mav’s forty-four. Me and Tarron are forty-two.”
She did that little open-mouthed gasp again, and this time it shot straight to my cock.
Did she make that sound when she came? Damn if I didn’t want to find out.
I rubbed my hands across my knees and winked at her. “What, surprised to find out we’re a bunch of old geezers?”
“You are not.” She smacked my arm with her palm, the touch light but electrifying. “You look younger than that. I never would have guessed you’re twenty years older than me.”
“Age is just a number.” A tight feeling cinched my chest.
This was the moment her interest would wane. I readied myself for the blow. “We needed every bit of our experience to get you out of there.”
“And I’m grateful. Youth is overrated. Older and wiser is the way to go.” She ducked her head as though embarrassed and picked at the edge of her blanket.
The red plaid set off her light skin and hair, but it was her eyes and the way every expression played out like she’d never had to hide a day in her life that drew me closer.
“What day is it?”
The question jolted me back to our situation. I checked my watch to verify, then showed her the glowing numbers on the dial. “Three days until Christmas.”
“Do you have family to go home to?” She asked it so quietly I almost missed it.
“Mav and Tarron are my family.” They were the only people who had mattered to me in a long, long time. “Our mission is to get you home by Christmas, and Mav is very good at obeying directives.”
Payton stared at me in a way that slipped past the superficial facade I often portrayed. “I never thanked you for saving me.” Reaching forward, she ran her thumb over the tiny tear in my lower lip. “I’m sorry I hit you.”
I captured her hand in mine and kissed her inner wrist. “Don’t ever apologize for defending yourself.”
“Does it hurt?” Her fingers curled inward, the brush of skin tightening where I held her hand.
Heat sizzled and sparked, racing between us in a heady cascade.
I’d suffered injuries that should have killed me.
A split lip was nothing.
The weight of my past threatened to ruin the moment.
The hell with that.
The last thing I wanted was to let Payton take on the heaviness I carried with me. “It was worth it to see what a fighter you are.” Did I push the issue?
Payton’s gaze lingered on my lips, hers parting with that tiny puff of air that gave me permission. “If you really want to make it better, you could kiss it.” I kept my tone playful, giving her a chance to pull away if I’d misread the situation.
Payton’s eyes rose and locked with mine. “That sounds like a dare.”
I remained still when she leaned forward and brushed her lips across mine.
My body turned molten, my need to please her rising hot and fast.
She moved a breath away, close enough to steal the air from me.
“I’m not sure it worked.” I traced the line of her jaw with my free hand. “Better try again.”
Her laugh mingled with a torrent of snow that crashed into the window.
This time, when our lips met, she didn’t hesitate to lay claim to the kiss.