14. Val
FOURTEEN
VAL
“What crawled up his ass?” Gemma stepped up beside me as we both stared at the expanse of Evan’s back.
Thank god she wasn’t on time. Ever. Five minutes earlier and she would have caught me dry humping her brother on the mat.
I pulled a calming breath to the bottom of my lungs and shrugged, not giving voice to the warm simmer of desire that simply watching Evan move caused beneath my skin.
“Ready to do some work today?” I assessed Gemma as she turned toward me. She wore workout leggings and a tight, long-sleeved workout top that covered her from neck to wrist. Her socks were tucked into her shoes and haphazardly thrown at the edge of the mat.
“I think so.” Gemma played with the hem of her sleeve, her eyes not meeting mine. “Evan has shown me how to punch and stuff.”
“Evan might be able to show you a few things, but he’s all brawn.
He’s got the muscle to back it up. As a woman, there are a few things that you can do, despite your smaller size.
” My heart broke for her as she toyed with her lip, and a nervous bounce shook her leg.
I gently touched her arm. “You don’t ever have to feel powerless again. ”
Her stark cobalt eyes, the one characteristic she shared with Evan, met mine. A determined line formed at her lip, and she nodded once.
Atta girl.
“That’s the fighting spirit you need. Hold on to that.” I squared her shoulders to mine and stood in front of her. “Okay. We’ll start simple. How to get away if someone grabs you.”
Gemma’s eyes darted around. Despite her brave exterior, panic licked at her. “Take a breath, Gem. We’ll start with me first. Go across and grab my wrist.”
Gemma relaxed, being able to emulate the attacker rather than the victim. She reached across and grabbed me.
I went through the movements slowly. Showing her how to move quickly and assertively to break the hold.
“It’s all in the momentum. Little movements can give you power. Step forward here, then shoot your arm down as you twist your wrist.” After a few times in slow motion, I instructed her to grab my wrist as tightly as she could. Despite her grip, I could use my movements to break free quickly.
Gemma’s eyes widened in surprise, and I grinned. “See? It’s pretty cool, right? Let’s try it on you now.”
We went several rounds with Gemma practicing the basic movement. Each time she moved more confidently and aggressively. I tightened my grip fractionally each time until I was confident she would be effective.
“Okay. Now I’m going to grab you. Hard. And you won’t know which wrist I’m going to grab. Just trust the movement. Break free and then you run.”
She nodded once. I walked around her slowly until I shot forward, grabbing her wrist as tightly as I could manage. Without hesitation, Gemma stepped forward and broke free by doing exactly what I’d taught her.
“Yes! That’s perfect.”
Gemma beamed.
For the next hour, we practiced simple movements and ways to move her body so that she could escape if she were ever grabbed again.
I explained the physics behind the movements and why they’re effective, despite the attacker being bigger or stronger.
Gemma ate the lesson up. She asked thoughtful questions and soaked in the knowledge.
Never having sisters, a gentle, affectionate warmth spread through me. I loved being able to teach her, empower her.
“You’re ready for the next level. I’m going to show you my favorite one—for next time.
What to do if you can’t break free. Okay .
.. grab my wrist again.” A smile danced across her features.
Gemma was much more confident in the short time we’d been working together.
“So if you grab my wrist and I can’t break it, I drop down here.
” I patted my thighs and showed her a simple martial arts horse stance, my legs wide and knees bent.
“I’ve lowered my center of gravity so the attacker can’t pull me around very easily. I’m in control.”
Gemma mirrored my movements as I explained them.
“Now take your free hand and wrap it around your fist. With a pull back and a jerk up, I’m going to pop my elbow up and out. If he’s close enough, that elbow will pop him in the jaw, but the simple force of the motion will break his grip. Then what?”
“Then you run.”
“You got it.” I stood and patted her on the shoulder. “ We’ll practice this one more next time, but you did great today.”
I walked Gemma toward our shoes. “Thank you for this, Val.”
Gemma wrapped me in a hug and squeezed the breath out of my lungs. Over her shoulder, I didn’t miss the heated stare of Evan as he toweled off the weight bench. I couldn’t tell if it was annoyance or anger or something else that darkened his features.
All I knew was it was fucking hot.
Being friends with Evan was just about killing me. Between the smoldering hot looks he shot my way and the small, gentle touches that lingered for hours, I was about to combust. And the warm-up in the gym? That was a mistake.
Instead, we’d taken to doing our morning chores together, and by the time sunset rolled around, I was a needy ball of energy, coiled and ready to ignite.
A critical part of being in WITSEC was severing all connection to your former life.
Being friends was probably a gray area, but having sex with me would definitely be against the rules and likely enough to get Evan kicked off the ranch.
That, or put him and Gemma in serious danger if anyone cared to connect me to him.
It also wouldn’t bode well for my hope of a promotion.
I was going to have to figure out something else to burn off this unrelenting sexual tension.
Something battery powered.
I snort-laughed to myself at the thought.
What would I do? I couldn’t very well get Gemma, Evan’s nineteen-year-old sister, to go with me to town to pick up a vibrator.
I highly doubted Bob’s Hardware carried what I was looking for.
Plus, if I wasn’t with Evan, Gemma and I were attached at the hip, and she’d definitely know something was up if I went to town without her.
Although I tapped my lip at the prospect, I’m sure Johnny could pull me a solid and get a discreet package sent to his store for me. My cheeks flamed at knowing I would have to ask him to find me a vibrator because two-day shipping wasn’t a thing in this tiny town.
I watched Evan muck the stall next to mine.
His breaths were even and steady compared to my huffing and puffing.
The man really was a beast . The reality was, I already knew a battery-operated toy would be a second-rate replacement for the real thing.
Likely, I’d just end up disappointed and eighty bucks in the hole.
We hadn’t really talked about what being just friends meant, but aside from wanting to climb him like a fucking tree, he was great company.
We joked and laughed. Worked and got things done.
Took quiet drives around the ranch while Evan pointed out what he’d learned about cattle ranching during his stay here.
Even quiet moments weren’t uncomfortable.
The dull ache in my chest pinched and grew when he looked at me in a way that said he, too, wished there could be more between us. Over the past few weeks, I knew a few things to be true.
One, Evan was a criminal and I was a cop.
Two, I was leaving as soon as I was cleared by Agent Walsh.
And three—most important—nothing more could come between us without burning both our lives to the ground. It was the wrong time for either of us to start anything serious.
Not that I suspected Evan wanted anything serious.
Maybe I’d been used to being single for so long, or that my line of work kept me at a certain distance from men, but it was hard for me to imagine a man like Evan being interested in me.
His attraction both surprised and delighted me.
But I did know that he couldn’t afford to get kicked off the ranch—not with him preparing to testify against his brother and the ranch providing protection for Gemma.
Even if I did catch him staring at my ass again. “See something you like?” I asked.
Evan grunted in response as he looked away and continued to muck the stall. “You working or just standing around?”
I propped my arm on the top of the manure fork. “Taking a breather.” He glanced at me and I winked. Evan shook his head, and the rhythm of his shoveling got quicker.
So Evan and I couldn’t be open with any kind of sexual relationship, that much was clear.
It also made zero sense to get emotionally involved with someone.
The good news was that I could definitely work with no strings attached .
Maybe there was a way to meet our needs without anyone finding out. An excited ripple danced through me.
Despite the knowledge that these things rarely worked in the long run, Evan and I weren’t here for the long run.
He didn’t talk about what would happen after he testified, and I planned to be back in Chicago as soon as I could.
Stealing moments with him was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make.
As long as we both agreed to keep it casual and we were extra careful not to get caught, everything would be fine.
Probably.
Another hard truth was that it could never work out between us, given his criminal past and my duty as a civil servant.
As much as the thought of waking up to Evan Walker every morning made tingles race down my spine, I couldn’t live my life knowing—or worse, not knowing––all the horrible things he’d done.
Plus, if his true identity was ever revealed, we’d live our lives constantly looking over our shoulders.