Marton, Dana (4 page)

Then he was off the last step and making his way toward the cars. He didn’t
go all the way to the lot. He leveled the gun at a young woman who slowed her
car. A few seconds later, she was sprawled on the pavement as Fowler and Jenny
peeled out of the parking lot in her vehicle.

Cameron just about flew down the stairs, jumped the whole last flight. He ran
for Mia’s car and slammed behind the wheel; picked her up on the way.

The red Celica Fowler drove was just turning at the end of the boulevard. And
then it passed out of sight.

“Damn it. He’s getting away.” Mia yanked the seatbelt across her chest.

Cameron pushed the gas pedal to the floor. “The hell he will. Are you hurt?”
He noticed for the first time the patch of blood on her shoulder, and eased off
the gas. “Who shot you? How bad?”

“Go! Flesh wound. Don’t you dare fuss over me.” There was murder in her eyes.

“I don’t fuss,” he said and ran the red light, swerved around traffic.

He made it to the corner and caught sight of the Celica again. Fowler was
going for the freeway, probably trying to get out of city traffic so he could
make some real progress.

Cameron stepped on the gas harder, honked the horn to warn a group of
teenagers who were considering stepping onto the road right in front of him.

Mia’s hand shot out to brace herself. “Watch the bus!”

He missed it. Barely.

But the tractor trailer that had prematurely jumped the curb to avoid them
didn’t. It flipped on its side and blocked the road completely.

The cops took their sweet time to clear the accident, even though nobody got
seriously hurt.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cameron looked over at Mia in the passenger seat
as they waited to be released from the scene.

Her arm had been patched up, courtesy of the paramedics, while he’d talked to
the police. She had refused a trip to the hospital. It was what he would have
done, but he still wished she had listened to reason.

She was awfully quiet. He’d had to brake pretty damn hard. He hadn’t seen her
head come into contact with the dashboard, but his attention had been on Fowler.
She looked a little red in the face. And she was breathing heavy.

“Did you hit anything?” He glanced at the paramedics who hadn’t left yet, and
debated calling one over to check her head, too.

“What the hell was that on the roof?” Mia turned to him finally, exploding
like a hand grenade. “When I tell you to cover me, you cover me. Understood?”
She shoved her way out and slammed the door behind her.

That was why she was acting strange? He got out, came over to her side. “I’ve
had —”

She stabbed his chest with her index finger, fire boiling in her blue eyes.
“Let me put it in terms you understand. When you’re working with me,
I am in
command.
”

She was sexy under all conditions. After several days of around-the-clock
surveillance, he’d seen her at less than her best. But man, she was hot when she
was mad.

Not that his emotions were under complete control. He was pissed as hell that
Fowler had gotten away, relieved that Mia was okay. His heart had just about
stopped when he’d seen Fowler put that gun to her head. Adrenaline still raced
through him. Got the better of him. He acted without thought, closing the
distance between them with a single stride. And then he kissed her.

This time it was for real.

She was in command?
She was going to run into a hail of bullets while
he stood by?

Oh, hell no.

His muscles tightened in some subconscious anticipation that she would fight
him. He half expected a knee in the balls. Instead, she kissed him back with all
she was worth.

For the rest of his life, he wouldn’t be able to smell peanut butter without
getting a hard on.

After a good long time, when the haze began to clear and he realized they
were in public, he let her go.

“Uh… that…” She closed her mouth, but was still looking at him dazed.

He knew how she felt. He glanced down. “Adrenaline, you know…and all that,”
he said, his voice rusty.

“Yeah.” She leaned against the car. “Not gonna happen again.”

“No. Sorry. Absolutely not,” he lied.

“Are you sure he came here?” Mia watched the forest around them as the car
sped over the rising road.

They were out in the Montana backwoods and hadn’t seen a town for the last
hundred miles.

“Familiar territory. Jack says these were the militia training grounds. If
Fowler were to leave the state, he would have done it early on with the rest of
his men. He’s sticking around. Might be a pride thing. No government is going to
run him out, that kind of stuff.”

They came around a bend. Cameron slowed the car, came to a stop. “There.” He
nodded toward the side of the road behind them.

She wouldn’t have noticed the half-bent grasses in a million years.

“Someone’s gone off the road not too long ago.”

She peered into the woods. Fowler and Jenny were about two hours ahead of
them.

Cameron backed up, turned onto the path and let the car roll forward slowly.
They came upon the abandoned Celica a few hundred yards later and approached it
with full caution.

“Might have run out of gas,” she guessed.

She had so hoped that Cameron was wrong and they would find Fowler somewhere
in the city. They were in the middle of the wilderness. Her expertise was in
high-speed chases and urban pursuit. She could find just about anyone with the
help of a good computer. She was lost in the woods. Cameron, on the other hand,
seemed right at home. He moved silently, with a purpose.

If there was a trail to follow, she sure didn’t see it, but considering his
background, it was safe to assume she could trust the man to lead.

He stole forward among the trees with fluid ease, alert to everything around
them. She tried to imitate him as she followed. When they headed up a rocky
incline and her feet slipped, he caught her on reflex, pulled her up level to
him. They were inches from each other, standing on a ledge.

One second she was thinking that if she ever did take on a partner, she
wouldn’t mind someone like him. The next she was thinking of that kiss in the
middle of the road.

“Why don’t you go first? Straight up here.” He pointed out the next handhold.

He probably meant it only so he could catch her if she slipped again. The
higher they got, the more damage she could do to herself if she fell, slow them
both down. But now that she’d thought of the kiss, she couldn’t shake off the
awareness.

She moved fast to get ahead of him; tried not to think of her PB and J-padded
behind wiggling a few short feet in front of his face. Too fast, she thought as
her feet slipped again. His large hand came up and braced her at the back of her
thigh.

She cleared her throat. “Thank you.” Didn’t breathe until he let go.

What the hell was wrong with her? Now was neither the time nor the place for
a lust attack. Not even if he was the finest of male specimens she’d met in a
long time. The kind of men she normally had business with wound up dangling at
the end of her handcuffs. And it never had a thing to do with kinky.

Mia focused on the rocks ahead. Okay, so she was attracted to her temporary
partner. She was mature enough to admit it. And she was disciplined enough to
ignore it.

She slipped again, and to her mortification he held her up by having her
practically sit in his palms. Was he lingering? She grabbed a root and pulled
up, trying not to think of the tingling parts. She would ignore whatever it was
that kept happening when they touched. Definitely. She was one of the toughest
bounty hunters in the west. No way was some hotshot military guy going to do her
in.

Cameron lay on his back in the darkness and stared at the patch of
star-dotted sky above before returning his attention to Mia. She had the face of
an angel and the body of a goddess — bathed in moonlight. But for all of that,
her soft beauty was deceiving. She had a steel core inside. He found the
combination an incredible turn on.

Which kept him up at night.

Distraction with a capital D. Another good reason for Special Forces not to
allow women, he thought as he considered her again — then reluctantly admitted
that he was about as comfortable working with her as with any of the guys. She
knew what she was doing. He could trust her to back him up.

“Is anything wrong?” she asked.

“No.” He shook his head. He hadn’t noticed that she’d awoken.

“Can’t sleep?” She watched him. “You were thinking about your sister.” Her
voice was rich with compassion.

It made him feel like an ass. He should have been thinking about Vicky, or
Fowler, how to catch the bastard…anything but the woman next to him.

Oh, what the hell.

“I was thinking about you,” he admitted. He wanted to ask what lead her to
this career. All of a sudden his head was full of questions for and about her.

But before he could voice any, her eyes widened and she said, “We shouldn’t
kiss again.”

He grinned. So she’d been thinking about
that.

He inched closer. “Now that you put it in my head.” Not that she had to — it
had been there all afternoon. He decided to go with the truth. “It’s been a
really long time since I kissed a woman. I mean, before you.”

“How flattering. So anyone will do in a pinch?” Her eyebrows shot up. She
didn’t look pleased. “If you think just because —”

“Someone’s gotta kiss you just to keep you quiet.”

Mia snapped her mouth closed. Who the hell was he to threaten her with a
kiss? Even if it did sound pretty appealing, considering she’d just come out of
an erotic and explicit dream about him to find him watching her in the
moonlight.

Cameron Murphy was
not
in control of her body or the situation, damn
it. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his to prove it. There. Take
that.

Big mistake.

He moved in for total invasion, mastery, full command. Yes, Colonel, sir, she
thought, and shamelessly capitulated.

“How far ahead do you think he is?” Mia asked as they skirted a clearing.

“Less than an hour. We’re gaining.” Cameron held a branch out of her way.

She didn’t grumble about his insistence to lead. He was at home in the woods.
It made sense to utilize his experience. An unspoken truce existed between them
that morning, which included not mentioning the kiss the night before.

He lifted his hand, and she froze.

“What is it?” She barely whispered the words, while her stomach grumbled
loudly, signaling noon.

“Don’t move.”

He bent to the ground, and she could see what he was looking at now. Three
metal prongs the width of pencil lead sticking out an inch or so from the soil.

“Land mine,” he said as he looked around for more. “I say we definitely found
the training grounds.”

She forgot all about her hunger as cold sweat ran down her back. If she’d
taken one more step… She swallowed. “What do we do now?”

“We back away, carefully. We’ll go slower. Go around this whole area. Step
exactly where I step.”

He was calm, focused. She put her life into his hands and followed him.

Two hours passed by the time they went around, then another two before they
picked up Fowler’s trail. By the time they finally made it out of the valley,
night was settling onto the woods.

“You think he knows we’re coming after him?” she asked once she felt safe
enough to take a full breath.

“I doubt it. Most likely he’s taking basic precaution,” Cameron said. “We’ll
stop for the night. I don’t want to run into any surprises in the dark.”

She wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment. She was still waiting for the
muscles in her shoulders to unknot from the landmine scare.

Cameron walked around for a few minutes, picked the site, and she helped him
make a bed of leaves. The air was cooler than the night before. She moved in
closer. For heat, she told herself, and because her nerves were rattled. She
found his large presence calming.

Until she looked into his eyes.

He touched his forehead to hers. “We’ll get him tomorrow,” he said.

She pressed against his warmth, and when his arms came around her, she didn’t
pull away. Not even when his lips found hers with the ease of coming home.

The kiss started slow. Cameron was giving her plenty of time. For what? To
change her mind? They had kissed before. She knew what she was getting into. She
needed him to make her forget how close they’d come to death earlier. A
goodnight kiss to relax, to comfort.

And she did draw comfort for a while…until heat took over, then raw need —
the strength of which took her breath away.

She got sucked under so fast, she didn’t know what hit her. One second they
were kissing, the next she had her hands under his shirt, the next he didn’t
have a shirt on. Had she done that?

She pulled back, confused, and her gaze fell onto the scars that crisscrossed
his chest. She ran a light finger over the largest, then followed the path with
her lips. The urge to taste him seemed overwhelming.

“Mia?” he groaned the question.

She buried her face into the crook of his neck. “It’s crazy. I —” She
couldn’t finish.

“I know.” He kissed the crown of her head and made a path down her cheek,
circling back to her mouth.

His large hands smoothed down her back, found their way under her T-shirt. He
had enough heat to singe her skin. His fingers ran up her rib cage, to the
underside of her breasts. She closed her eyes.

It had been a long time since she’d been touched like this, she thought. Then
he did something with his thumbs that sent fire skittering across her skin.
She’d never been touched like
that.