Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
BOONE
The lodge is tense when I walk in, still tasting Mara on my lips.
Deck is at the tactical table with Sully, both hunched over a laptop. Mace stands by the window, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. And on the video screen mounted to the wall, Richard Plummer's face stares back at me.
My best friend's face. The man whose daughter I had pinned against a support beam ten minutes ago.
"Boone." Richard's voice crackles through the speakers. "Good. We're all here."
I move to the table, positioning myself where I can see both the screen and Sully's laptop. "What do we have?"
"Sully intercepted some chatter this morning." Deck pulls up a series of communications on the screen. "Encrypted, but he cracked it within the hour."
Sully pushes his glasses up his nose, fingers flying across the keyboard. "The contract on Mara has been activated. Timeline moved up. They're not waiting anymore."
My blood goes cold. "How soon?"
"Within the week. Maybe sooner." Sully turns the laptop toward me. "The communications reference a 'window of opportunity' and mention Nevada specifically. They know she's here."
"How?" Richard's voice is sharp. "Guardian Peak's location is classified. We were careful."
"Someone inside her company," Sully says. "I've been tracking data breaches for the past month. There's a mole. Someone with access to her travel schedule, her security arrangements, everything."
I think about Mara's laptop, open on her kitchen counter. The way she works constantly, connected to her team in San Francisco. The vulnerability that creates.
"Can you identify them?"
"Working on it. But it's going to take time we might not have."
Richard leans closer to the camera, and I see the fear beneath his composure. This is a man who served two tours in the most dangerous regions on earth, and right now he looks terrified.
"Boone." His eyes find mine through the screen. "I need to know she's safe. I need to know you have this handled."
"I have it handled."
"Do you?" There's a weight to the question. "Because I know my daughter. She's brilliant and stubborn and she doesn't make anything easy. If she's fighting you on protocols, if she's making your job harder..."
"She's not." The lie comes easily. Too easily. "She's cooperating. Following instructions. The training is going well."
Deck's eyes cut to me. He knows. He always knows.
"Richard." Deck steps forward, drawing attention away from me. "Guardian Peak is the most secure location in the state. We've got round the clock patrols, reinforced structures, and the best operators in the business. Whoever's coming for Mara is going to hit a wall they can't get through."
Richard nods, but the tension doesn't leave his shoulders. "I should be there. I should have come with her."
"You being here would have tipped off whoever's watching." I keep my voice steady. Professional. "Mara thinks she's at a training retreat. That cover is her best protection right now. If they think she doesn't know about the threat, they might get sloppy. Give us an opening."
"And when they come?"
"We'll be ready."
The briefing continues for another twenty minutes.
Sully outlines his plan for tracking the mole.
Deck assigns additional patrols, pulling Hayes and Ryder from other duties to strengthen the perimeter.
Mace will coordinate with Sheriff Tom Parker in Whisper Vale, establishing a backup extraction route if we need to move Mara quickly.
Through all of it, I feel Richard's eyes on me.
When the briefing ends and the others filter out, he stops me.
"Boone. A minute."
I turn back to the screen. Mace pauses at the door, raising an eyebrow, but I wave him off. This is between me and Richard.
"What do you need?"
Richard is quiet for a long moment. Then he sighs, running a hand over his face. "I know I'm asking a lot. Keeping Mara safe isn't just about the threat. It's about keeping her from self destructing in the process."
"She's not self destructing."
"She works too hard. Sleeps too little. Thinks she can solve every problem herself." His voice softens. "She gets that from me. The stubbornness. The inability to let anyone else carry the weight."
I think about Mara on the training mat, determined to learn how to defend herself. Mara at dinner, charming my entire team with her quick wit. Mara pressed against that beam, her fingers curled in my shirt, kissing me like the world was ending.
"She's stronger than you give her credit for."
"I know she is. That's what terrifies me." Richard meets my eyes through the screen. "You're a good man, Boone. One of the best I know. That's why I asked for you specifically. Not just because you're the best tactical planner Guardian Peak has. Because I trust you with what matters most to me."
The guilt is a physical weight in my chest.
"I won't let anything happen to her."
"I know you won't." He pauses. "Just... take care of her. And take care of yourself. You've been alone too long, my friend. Maybe this assignment will be good for both of you."
The screen goes dark before I can respond.
I stand in the empty lodge, staring at my reflection in the blank monitor, and wonder how the hell I'm supposed to protect Mara Plummer when I can't even protect myself from wanting her.
I find her in her cabin three hours later, after the sun has set and the compound has gone quiet.
She opens the door in yoga pants and an oversized sweater, her hair loose around her shoulders, her feet bare. The fire is crackling behind her, and the warm light turns her skin golden.
"Boone." She steps back to let me in. "I was starting to think you'd decided to avoid me forever."
"The briefing ran long." I move past her into the cabin, my shoulder brushing hers. "We need to talk."
"That sounds ominous." She closes the door, leaning against it. "Is this about what happened at the training ground? Because I already told you not to apologize."
"It's not about that." I turn to face her. "The threat has escalated. The timeline's been moved up. Someone inside your company has been feeding information to the people who want you dead."
Her expression shifts. The playfulness drains away, replaced by the sharp intelligence I first saw in her corporate headshot.
"A mole."
"Sully's working on identifying them. In the meantime, we're increasing security. More patrols, tighter protocols. You don't go anywhere without me or another team member. Not even across the compound."
"Okay."
I blink. "Okay? That's it? No argument, no pushback?"
"Boone." She pushes off from the door, moving toward me.
"I'm not an idiot. I know when to fight and when to follow.
If the threat is real, if someone inside my company is trying to get me killed, then I need you.
I need your protocols and your plans and your obsessive need to account for every variable. "
She stops directly in front of me, close enough to touch.
"What I don't need," she continues softly, "is you pretending that what happened between us doesn't matter."
"It doesn't matter."
"Liar."
The word hangs between us.
"I talked to your father today." I don't know why I say it. Maybe I need the reminder. Maybe I need her to understand what's at stake. "He's counting on me to keep you safe. He trusts me."
"I know he does."
"If he knew what happened on that training mat..."
"He'd probably be more upset about the security breach than the kiss." She reaches up, her fingers brushing my jaw. "My father wants me alive and happy. Right now, you're the only thing making either of those things possible."
I catch her wrist. "Mara."
"Tell me you don't want this." Her eyes hold mine, steady and certain. "Tell me you haven't been thinking about it all day, and I'll back off. We'll go back to professional distance and clear boundaries and pretending we don't feel what we feel."
The smart thing would be to end this before it goes any further. I’ve never claimed to be smart everyday. I pull her against me and kiss her.
She makes a sound, surprise and satisfaction mixed together, and her arms wrap around my neck. I lift her easily, one hand under her ass, and she wraps her legs around my waist as I carry her toward the couch.
"Not the couch." She breaks the kiss long enough to gesture toward the loft. "Bedroom. I want you in my bed."
I change direction, taking the stairs two at a time with her still wrapped around me. The loft bedroom is small, dominated by a queen bed covered in a thick down comforter. I lay her down on it, following her body with mine, and her back arches to meet me.
"Boone." My name is a plea on her lips. "I need..."
"I know what you need." I pull back enough to look at her, spread beneath me with her hair wild against the pillows, her chest heaving, her eyes dark with want. "I've been planning this since the moment you stepped out of that car on the mountain road."
"Planning?" Her laugh is breathless. "Even sex is tactical for you?"
"Everything is tactical." I reach for the hem of her sweater, pulling it up and over her head. She's not wearing a bra, and the sight of her breasts, full and soft with peaked pink nipples, makes my cock throb against my zipper. "Especially the things that matter."
I lower my mouth to her breast, taking one nipple between my lips. She gasps, her fingers threading through my hair, holding me against her.
"So what's the plan?" Her voice is unsteady. "Walk me through it."
"First." I switch to her other breast, circling the nipple with my tongue before sucking it into my mouth. "I'm going to taste every inch of you. Learn what makes you moan, what makes you scream, what makes you come apart."
Her hips roll against me. "And then?"