Chapter 8 #2
“You mean something to me now, Regan. You and your mother. The Army taught me that every soldier looks different, but beneath the surface, we’re all committed to community.
To taking care of our family, our friends, our neighbors.
Rangers never quit, and no matter what happens between you and me, I will be here for you. ”
Her hand came up to rest flat against his chest. “I know you will.”
She rose on her toes and kissed him. Her eyes didn’t close, didn’t leave his. The gravity in them pulled him in. The rawness in her expression nearly did him in.
Regan—the woman holding onto her father’s bar, taking care of her mother, and still working hard on her journalism career. Trying to control everything. She was vulnerable underneath it all, and he doubted she ever opened up to anyone the way she had to him.
He kissed her back. A part of him wanted to tell her he admired her. That he thought she was strong, beautiful, and brave.
An equally loud part wanted to strip her down and show her just how much he wanted to care for her.
She’d showered and washed away the smell of the bar. Raspberries engulfed him. He breathed it in, running his hands down her arms, her sides. The bed was right there, and he desperately wanted to lay her down on it. To take away her worries for the rest of the night. To bring her some joy.
Because, damn it, she deserved it.
Discipline . Do not screw this up. Literally .
Her mouth opened, granting him access. Hands on her hips, he pulled her closer, her thighs brushing his. Her chest rose on an inhale, her breasts pressing into his ribs. He felt her hardened nipples through his shirt.
She ran her fingers through his hair as he arched her slightly backward, his hands holding her steady. He cupped the back of her head and teased her mouth with his tongue. She gave the teasing back, nipping his bottom lip.
A growl sounded from his throat, and he felt her smile against his mouth. One of her hands slipped low to cup the hard length of him through his sweatpants. He nearly embarrassed himself right there. He closed his eyes and leaned into it.
Her other hand guided one of his to her full breast. He opened his eyes and saw hers were half-lidded.
He walked her backward and pinned her against the wall. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and the kiss went electric.
He slipped a hand under her shirt and tweaked her nipple. She moaned. Her legs tightened around him, drawing his erection against her.
She felt like something he’d been missing his whole life. He was nearly dizzy from the sensations roaring through his body.
And then his damn phone blared. The sound cut through the quiet of the night, their heavy breathing.
Not with a phone call or text.
An alarm.
The security app was alerting him.
He gripped her by the hips and stepped back, her feet falling to the floor. Her eyes went from half-lidded with desire to scared as she realized what the sound meant.
Breathing hard, he made sure she was steady before he scrambled for the phone. He opened the app and watched the video of the outside of the house. A man swung his leg off a motorcycle parked at the curb.
“We’ve got company,” CB said softly.
Her eyes went wide. “There’s a shotgun in the foyer closet.”
“Stay here,” he told her.
“The hell I will.” She crept out behind him as he headed for the front door.
Stubborn woman.
He walked to the entry, grabbed the shotgun, and opened the door to the stranger approaching the porch. “You’d best stop right there.”
The man, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, did. His hands were in his pockets, and he started to withdraw one.
CB racked the shotgun.
The man’s hand froze. “Just delivering a message,” he said. “It’s from your dad, CB.”
CB lowered the weapon. “Jimmy? What are you doing here?”
Jimmy Loftlin—a man who’d been tight with Wade and Ray for as long as CB could remember—stood on the sidewalk. His wife had always snuck CB and Ryder caramel candies when they were around.
He slowly removed a white piece of paper from his pocket. “You know Wade’s not good at using a phone much anymore. He told me to bring you this note, and to do it tonight. He’s in one of his…moods.”
CB heard Regan exhale hard behind him. He walked down the steps and took the paper.
“You should come by the campground next weekend,” Jimmy said. “Guys would love to see you.”
CB gripped the note tighter. “I’ll think about it.”
Jimmy turned and got back on his bike. It roared to life in the quiet summer night, and CB watched him ride away.
Back inside, Regan eyed the note. CB returned the shotgun to its place in the closet. Lucy and Desi came down from upstairs.
“What’s going on?” Lucy said. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine,” CB told her. “Sorry we woke you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, glanced at Regan. “Don’t lie, young man.”
“It’s nothing, Mom,” Regan said. “A man dropped off a note for CB from his father. That’s all.”
“A note? It’s two in the morning.”
“My father doesn’t keep normal hours,” CB said. “He had a stroke a while back and gets things mixed up.”
The irritation was replaced by self-reproach. “I’m sorry. I’d heard about that. Must be rough.”
He waved it off. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
She glanced at the note. “Does he need you?”
CB dreaded reading the message, but knew neither of these women would let it go until they all knew what the note contained.
He flipped it open and scanned it. He couldn’t stop the annoyed chuckle that escaped his lips.
“It’s just a request for his favorite crackers.
I usually bring him groceries on Thursdays. ”
Lucy and Regan exchanged a look. It was technically Thursday.
“Don’t worry,” CB said. “I’ve already arranged for a delivery. I won’t be leaving my post.”
“If you need to see your father,” Lucy started.
Wade was more concerned about his crackers than seeing him, and CB knew it. “I’ll see him when this is over,” he promised her. “Don’t worry about it. He’s in good hands.”
Regan made a disbelieving snort.
Lucy hesitated, then nodded. “All right then. See you in the morning.”
CB stood in the hall. Regan brushed a hand over his arm. “Goodnight,” she said.
“Goodnight, Regan.”
He watched her pad down the hall. Her door closed, and he released a long exhale.
A smart man would remind himself of the operational parameters of his assignment. The timeline. The fact that his job here had a defined endpoint.
Regan was in the middle of the most dangerous thing she’d ever done. The last thing either of them needed was the complication of whatever was happening between them.
And this note from his father was more than a request for crackers. CB didn’t believe for a moment that Wade had even written it. Or that he’d called Jimmy and ordered him to deliver it to the Hill house.
Ryder was playing games. With Regan and with CB.
He was aware of all of that. He was also aware that he was in trouble.
Not the Ryder kind. A worse kind. The kind that crept up on you while you were protecting someone and found yourself falling for them.
He’d been careful for a long time about a lot of things. He knew the dangers of going behind enemy lines and what it took to get back to safety. He’d been an expert at counterintelligence, and it looked like he was going to need those skills for this assignment, too.
Regan had shattered his careful approach on the first day at the bar. She’d asked him to cross the line between her and his family.
In the guest room, he lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He turned it all over and over in his mind.
He was still thinking about where it all led when his phone lit up on the nightstand.
A text. Not Mack. Not Garrett.
Ryder.
He picked up the phone.
Need to talk. Just us. No Shadow Point, no Regan. I have information about Wade you need to hear. Information you don’t want your pretty bartender finding out about.
He read it over again, dissecting what it meant. What it might mean.
Ryder had been running plays like this since they were teenagers, and this one had all the classic hallmarks—the invitation, the urgency, the information held just out of reach. You had to come to the table to gain access to it. Do his bidding.
Ryder wanted CB away from Shadow Point’s resources and away from Regan, and he’d found the one lever that might work.
Wade.
CB set the phone back on the nightstand.
His father was still connected to the Outlaws in ways that went beyond loyalty and memory.
Wade had built a life inside that organization, and a stroke hadn’t erased thirty years of entanglement.
Ryder probably had something on Wade that could complicate the federal case Claire was building, something that could put his father in the crosshairs. CB needed to know what it was.
He picked the phone back up. When and where?