Chapter Eleven #2
She pressed her forehead against his chest and let out a slow breath. “I missed you so much,” she said quietly, her voice catching.
“I missed you too.” He eased back just enough to lift her face to his. “I’m crazy about you. I think you know that.”
He kissed her softly at first, giving her the chance to pull back.
She didn’t. She slid her arms around his waist and kissed him back with everything she’d been holding onto since the night he walked out her door, all the hurt and the missing him and the wanting this to work, and she felt him pull her closer like he understood every bit of it.
He lifted his lips from hers, forehead dropping to hers.
“I need you,” he said quietly.
“I need you too.” She took his hand and led him toward the stairs, turning on the third step to face him.
He reached for the hem of her scrubs top and pulled it over her head, then pushed her pants down.
He kissed her again, slow and deep, and when he unclasped her bra and let it fall she felt the warmth of his hands moving over her like he had all the time in the world.
His mouth moved along her collarbone, down her chest, and when he drew a nipple between his lips she gripped his hair and held on.
His hand slid down and beneath the waistband of her panties, fingers moving between her legs.
“You’re wet,” he murmured against her skin.
“Yes. Hud, please.”
“I plan on it.” He stepped back and pushed her panties down, then looked at her for a long moment. “You are so beautiful.”
He kissed her again and when he leaned into her she sat on the step and reached for his jeans, unsnapping them and pulling the zipper down.
She slid her hand inside, wrapped it around him, and he groaned.
She pushed his jeans and boxer briefs down and took him into her mouth, his fingers tightening in her hair.
After a moment he stepped back. “I need to be inside you.”
He spread her legs and settled between them, easing into her slowly until he couldn’t go further.
“God, you feel good,” he breathed.
He began to move and she moved with him, her hands gripping his back.
She wanted him to go faster and yet she wanted it to last, and when she couldn’t take the tension anymore she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in hard.
He understood immediately, his hips driving against hers until she was right on the edge, and when he reached between them and touched her she came apart completely, his name tearing out of her.
He followed seconds later, groaning against her lips as he pulsed inside her.
He rested his forehead against hers, catching his breath.
“Damn,” he murmured.
“Yeah.” She laughed softly, then stilled. “Hud. You didn’t wear a condom.”
He closed his eyes. “Hell. I’m sorry. I just—” He shook his head. “You go to my head. Are you on birth control?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’re okay. I always use one, Blair. Always. That’s never happened before.”
She smoothed her hand along his jaw. “It’s okay. Come upstairs. We can shower.”
He straightened and reached for his jeans, pulling them up and fastening them. Then he went quiet in a way she recognized.
“I can’t stay tonight.”
Blair went still.
She sat up slowly and looked at him. “What did you just say?”
“Blair—”
“After everything you said to me downstairs. After all of that, you’re still going to walk out that door.” Her voice was low and even.
“It’s not the same as before. Just let me explain.”
“No.” She stood and gathered her clothes from the stairs. “Get out, Hud. I mean it. Don’t come back.”
“Please just listen—”
“Get out.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “Please.”
He looked at her for a long moment, something working behind his eyes, then turned and walked to the door. It closed behind him.
Blair stood on the stairs and listened to his truck start and pull away. Then she walked up to the bathroom and closed the door.
“I am so done with you,” she said to the empty room. “So completely done.”
She turned the shower on as hot as she could stand it and stepped in.
****
Hud hit the steering wheel with his fist and immediately regretted it. He shook out his hand and stared at the road.
She was too angry to listen. She hadn’t raised her voice and that worried him more than if she’d shouted.
She wouldn’t give him two seconds to explain himself, just shut him down and threw him out, and he couldn’t even be fully angry about it because that stubborn streak was one of the things he lo—
He stopped that thought cold.
“Love?” He said it out loud like he was testing the word. “Who said anything about love?”
He drove another block in silence.
“Damn it, Anderson.” He shook his head slowly. “You finally fall in love and it’s with a woman who just told you to never come back.”
He thought about turning around, knocking on the door until she answered and making her listen. But she was too far gone tonight and he knew it. There was no reaching her right now.
After the stakeout he’d try again. He’d find a way to make her hear him out.
But right now, he had a job to do, and Harold White wasn’t going to arrest himself.
At ten o’clock Hud pulled into the courthouse lot to find Alex Reeves, Kian, Creed, Luke and Eli already there, standing beside their trucks. He parked and walked over.
“Glad you’re all here. Let’s go inside and go over the plan.”
They followed him up, gathered in the conference room, worked through the details and assigned positions. Then they sat around the table with coffee and waited until it was time to move.
Later, they moved through the trees in silence, weapons up. Moonlight filtered through the branches in pale threads, just enough to see by, not enough to give them away.
Hud kept Alex and Kian to his right, Creed, Luke and Eli to his left. He didn’t like the feel of it. The terrain, the hour, the stillness that sat too heavy over everything. Too close to the night they’d almost lost Rawley. Different woods, same cold weight settling in his gut.
The shot cracked through the silence before any of them could react.
Creed dropped.
Everyone scattered, pressing behind boulders and tree trunks as a second shot rang out and blew a chunk of rock into the air.
“Creed.” Hud kept his voice low. Nothing. “Kian, can you see him?”
“He’s down. Not moving.”
“Damn it.” Hud’s jaw tightened. Just be breathing. Hold on, Creed. “Anyone able to get to him?”
“No need.” A voice drifted out of the darkness ahead, almost casual. “He’s already dead.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Hud’s voice was flat and hard.
“Armor piercing rounds, Agent. First shot.” A pause, then a low laugh that made Hud’s blood run cold. “And there are more of us than there are of you. Nearly two to one. You already know how this ends.”
Hud caught Kian’s eye across the gap between their trees and gave a short shake of his head. We can’t hold this position.
“We need backup,” he said quietly.
Kian already had his phone out. A few seconds later he put it away. “On the way.”
“They won’t get here in time,” Alex whispered. “We need to move.”
“I’m not leaving Creed.”
“Hud.” Kian’s voice was low and careful.
“No.” He said it quietly but there was nothing negotiable in it. “He could still be alive. I won’t walk away without knowing that.”
Kian was silent for a moment. “Alright. Then we hold.”
Kian pressed his back against the tree, eyes fixed on the darkness ahead. He raised his weapon and fired. Somewhere out in the dark a man groaned and went down.
“Moon caught his barrel. They’re about a hundred yards out, just past the tree line.”
“Good shot.” Hud passed the information to Alex and Eli in a low voice.
He could barely make out shapes in the darkness, which meant the rustlers were likely struggling to see as well. Unless they had night vision. He pulled his binoculars out and scanned the tree line. The others did the same. Nobody had expected it to go sideways this fast.
“I’m going for Creed,” Eli said.
“Stay low. We’ll cover you.”
Eli moved and the others opened up on the tree line, keeping the pressure on. Hud watched his shape moving through the dark, low and fast, and held his breath until Eli reached Creed and dropped down beside him.
“Sirens,” Kian said quietly.
Hud listened. There they were, faint but getting louder, and something in his chest unclenched just slightly.
Thrashing in the trees. Then more of it, urgent and disorganized. They were running.
A moment later MDOL trucks and sheriff’s SUVs came up hard from behind the tree line, red and blue strobing through the dark, headlights flooding the field.
The rustlers froze. A bullhorn cut through the night ordering them to their knees, and Hud was already moving, not watching, trusting the backup to handle it.
He dropped down beside Creed. “Hey. Come on, Creed.” He pressed two fingers to his neck and waited.
There. Slow and thready but there.
He swept his flashlight over him and found the wound. The slug had punched through the vest on the right side of his chest. Blood welled up dark and fast and Hud pressed his palm hard against it.
“I need an ambulance out here right now,” he called out. “Agent down.”
“No time.” Deke appeared beside him. “We’ll load him into a truck. Move, Hud.”
Hud looked up at his brother. “He can’t die.”
Deke held his gaze for just a second. “I know. We’ve got him. Move.”
He and two other agents lifted Creed carefully and got him into the backseat of one of the MDOL trucks. The engine turned over and it tore off across the pasture, headlights bouncing over the uneven ground until it disappeared into the dark.
Hud stayed on his knees and watched it go.
“Hud.” Alex stood over him. “We need to move.”
“I have to call Abbie.” Hud stared at his hands. Dark with Creed’s blood. “What do I even say to her?”
“The truth. That’s all you can do.” Alex held out a rag.
Hud stood and wiped his hands slowly, then pulled out his phone and stared at it. “He has to make it, Alex. Abbie’s pregnant.”