Читать книгу Rules In Blackmail - Nichole Severn - Страница 12

Chapter Three

Dying hurt like hell.

Heat blistered along his forearms, neck and face. His entire body ached in places he hadn’t thought about since his SEAL days. He hadn’t been on active duty for over a year now, but Sullivan still trained as though he were. Had to be ready for anything his clients might throw his way. Even the beginning stages of hypothermia. Damn it, he should’ve known better. Groaning, he cracked open his eyes, stomach still rolling. A fire popped a few feet from him.

At least he knew where he was. The cabin was sparse: one bedroom, one bath, a living room and small kitchen. He mostly came out here when he wanted to be alone, needed to get away from people, the city or both. No neighbors, no one to encroach on his business. And he’d never brought anyone here before. He’d kept this place under his mother’s maiden name in case he’d needed a safe house. It couldn’t be traced back to him if Jane’s stalker—or anyone else—had the inclination to investigate. But how in the hell did he get here?

Sullivan raised his head. He wasn’t alone.

Endless amounts of warm, smooth skin stretched out beside him under the heaviest blanket he kept on hand in the cabin. A head of black hair rested against his right arm. Jane? He had to be dreaming. Skimming his fingers across her shoulder blade, he sank into how very real she felt. Nope. Not a dream. But why would she... The lapse in his memory filled almost instantly. The last thing he remembered was the look on her face as he...collapsed. Terrified. Hell. Had she dragged him all the way out here on her own?

Her shoulders rising and falling against him in a slow, even rhythm said she was fast asleep. He couldn’t have been out for long. An hour—two, tops—from the amount of moonlight coming through the front room window. He’d messed up out there, but her sultry vanilla scent spared him a few ounces of guilt. It dived into his lungs, and he took a deep breath to keep it in his system as long as possible. His heart rate dropped to a slow, even thump behind his ears. He closed his eyes, all too easily seeing himself burying his nose in her hair for another round.

Nope. Not the time and definitely not this woman.

Sullivan shifted his hips away from her backside. If Jane woke up now, there’d be no hiding what was going on downstairs in that moment. His brain might have control, but with the expanse of soft skin along his front, his body had other ideas. He scanned the living room and spotted his clothes hanging from fishing line around the open rafters by the fireplace. He’d gotten out of some real complicated situations in the navy. There had to be a way to unwind himself from this warm, coldhearted woman without waking her.

He leveraged his weight into his toes and stretched out his arm. A soft, guttural moan worked up Jane’s throat. Something primal washed through him. He froze. There was a stalker on the loose and he’d nearly died out in the wilderness, but all Sullivan could think about was what he wouldn’t give to hear that sound again.

She shifted against him, wrapping her leg around him as though she sensed he was trying to escape. What the—

The breath Sullivan had been holding crushed from his lungs. He settled back where he’d been, pressed right against her, his front to her back. “You’re awake, aren’t you?”

Rolling into him, Jane startled him with a wide, gut-clenching grin. The dark, sultry look of her gaze constricted his throat, and a shiver chased down his spine. Her pupils expanded. For an instant, he swore he saw desire blazing in her eyes. Or maybe the hypothermia had done more damage to his brain than he’d originally thought. “I couldn’t wait to see your reaction when you woke up and found a naked woman under the blanket with you. Surprise.”

“Did I meet your expectations?” Sullivan was proud of the fact his voice sounded steady and calm. Especially considering how very far from calm he felt at the moment. Aware of how naked he was and how she couldn’t possibly miss the show going on at her lower back, he held his weight away from her.

“Absolutely priceless. And, as a bonus, I got to see you naked.” That amused smile of hers did funny things to his stomach, and he couldn’t help but clench the blanket in his grip for some piece of control. Resting her hand on his chest, Jane pushed herself up to a sitting position, taking the blanket with her as she stood. Cool air rushed down his body, prickling his skin along the way. “Don’t worry, big guy. It wasn’t anything sexual. You were dying and I had to get your body temperature up.”

Her long legs peeked out from between the folds of the blanket as she walked, the fire glinting off her bright red toenail polish. Not exactly the color he’d visualized for the woman he’d blamed for his brother’s suicide this past year. Black maybe, something to match her soul.

But Jane had saved his life out there. Even if she was only using him to track down her stalker, that counted for something in his world. Her reputation said she was the JAG Corps prosecutor willing to do anything and everything to convict the men and women who interrupted her crusade for justice. He scanned over his clothing hanging from the rafters. The Full Metal Bitch had only kept him alive to fix her stalker problem. Nothing more.

There was a lot he didn’t know about her, even more he couldn’t trust. One thing he did know? He would’ve died out there today if it hadn’t been for Jane. So, for now, he would choose to see a woman in danger, a woman who’d lost her grip on everything she thought she could control. Not someone who could turn on him at any moment.

She smiled over her shoulder at him as she pulled her clothing from the makeshift laundry lines.

Pulling a pillow from the couch across his hips, Sullivan cleared his throat. “Thank you for saving my life out there. Can’t imagine what it took to get me through that door. Couldn’t have been easy.”

“Guess that makes us even, doesn’t it?” Her hair flipped around her head as she headed straight for the single bathroom on the other side of the cabin and shut the door tight. The sound of the lock clicking into place shut down any hint of something between them.

It wasn’t going to happen. Not now. Not ever. She might’ve saved his life out there a few hours ago, but Jane had a lifetime of steel running through her veins, steel that’d gotten his brother killed. She was the reason he didn’t have any family left in this world. Besides, she was a client, and Blackhawk Security operatives were never to get involved with their clients. No exceptions.

Which reminded him—he had to fill his team in on their new case. Because even without blackmail hanging over his head, the bastard terrorizing Jane owed Sullivan a new SUV.

He tossed the pillow back onto the couch and dressed in a hurry. She’d hung his clothes up by the fire to dry them out, and the warm fabric chased away the chill of Jane leaving his side. How could he have been so stupid out there? Rule number one when in below-freezing temperatures: stay dry, stay warm. He usually had enough sense to slow down and ensure he wasn’t sweating. What had changed?

The bathroom door clicked open and his attention slid toward Jane as she stepped back into the main room. He pulled his shoulders back. There stood his answer. He hadn’t exactly been in the right frame of mind after nearly getting run down by a tow truck. He’d wanted to get Jane to safety as fast as possible. Stupid. She’d proved she could take care of herself, had even saved his life in the process. Aside from a few bumps and bruises, she was no worse for wear.

“This is a nice place.” She scanned over the small cabin, fingers stuffed into her jacket as he opened one drawer of his massive desk. “Not great security, though. A key taped to a bush? Thought you security consultants were better than that.”

“Sometimes there’s beauty in simplicity. Anybody breaking in here would expect some kind of elaborate security system, all the while wasting time looking for it. Gives me time to counter.” Another one of those debilitating smiles overwhelmed her features, and he couldn’t help but smile back. Sullivan flipped one of the many burner cell phones he’d unearthed from the desk over in his hand. The sensation of lightness disappeared, however, the longer he studied her. Eyes narrowing, he tried justifying the last few hours since she’d broken into his office. Why him? Why now? “What are you doing here, Jane?”

A small burst of laughter escaped from between those rosy lips. She motioned toward the front door. “Well, I couldn’t very well leave you here alone after—”

“No.” Sullivan closed in on her, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. “I mean why did you break into my office tonight? You had other options. Any number of bodyguards or private investigators in Anchorage would’ve jumped to help you for the right price. After all, you were ready to offer me anything.” He halted no more than a foot from her, reading those deep hazel eyes for any sign of hesitation. “Why come to me?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She tried backing away but hit the wall beside the front door. “I had dirt on you and your family, and I knew I could use it to force you to help me. Saved myself a hell of a lot of money in the process.”

Heat prickled under Sullivan’s skin, crawling up his neck and warming his face. Only Jane crossed her arms across her chest and the strong pulse at the base of her neck beat unevenly. She didn’t believe a word she was saying. And, thinking about it now, she’d only pulled the blackmail card when he’d refused to help her the first two times she’d asked. “You’re lying.”

Color left her features, a telling reaction he’d noted back in his office. Jane curled her fingers into the palms of her hands, stance wide as though she intended to run straight out the front door. Nervousness? Embarrassment? Difficult to tell when she wiped any kind of emotion from her features so fast.

“What do you want from me?” He stalked toward her. No. She wasn’t going to hide behind that hardened exterior this time.

“I guess after what happened on the road, you deserve the truth. It seems stupid now, but I didn’t have anyone else I could trust.” She licked her bottom lip, but Sullivan refused to let the motion distract him this time. Answers. That was all he wanted. He’d risked his life—twice—for her. Now he needed to know why she’d pulled him into this mess. She cocked her head to the side. “I came to you because I saw how protective and dedicated you were to Marrok during his trial. And after I uncovered that photo in my phone yesterday, I needed a little bit of that in my life.” Raising that beautiful gaze to his, she let her shoulders deflate and she exhaled hard. “I needed you.”

* * *

“I NEED TO brief my team.” His gravelly voice played havoc with her insides, but Sullivan turned away from her, phone in hand. Refused to even look at her.

Every nerve in Jane’s body caught fire. That was all he had to say? Watching him, she noted the strain around his eyes, the slightly haggard expression on his features as he spoke into the phone in whispered, clipped responses. She was used to it. In their line of work, she’d learned anybody could be listening in. Phone taps, parabolic mics. Without an idea of who her stalker was, why they’d come after her or what resources they had access to, she and Sullivan couldn’t afford to be careless.

She headed into the kitchen. When had she eaten last? Her stomach rumbled. Too long ago. Sullivan turned toward her at the sound. The weight of his gaze slid across her sternum. Head down, she focused on her hunt for anything edible in this place. No luck. He obviously didn’t stay here often. The walls were bare, the counters covered in dust. She ran her fingers over the cream granite, but ripped her hand away at the low temperature.

“I sent my forensic investigator, Vincent, to your place with some backup.” Sullivan tossed the cell phone he’d been using onto the granite. Exhaustion played across his features, darkening the circles under his eyes. He hadn’t gotten much sleep after nearly dying. Neither of them had, but Jane was too wound up and too anxious to figure this mess out. “If your stalker has been there, Vincent will find the evidence and call me back. Could be an hour, could be tomorrow. Just depends.”

“Okay. What do we do until then?” She couldn’t sit around waiting for some maniac to make the next move. There had to be something in her case files, something in her work for the army that could point them in the right direction to an ID of who’d T-boned them back at the bridge.

“We dig into your cases.” Sullivan slid onto the bar stool on the other side of the granite countertop as though using it as a barrier between them. Probably a good idea. Because those heated, confusing minutes of them under the blanket in front of the fire together hadn’t exactly gone as Jane had expected. His skin had pressed against hers from chest to toes, his very prominent arousal at her lower back, and the way he’d feathered his fingertips over her shoulder... Jane swallowed back the memories. His touch had felt good, real. Then again, she’d lived the past few months as a hermit and wouldn’t know the difference between her own arousal and the simple need for human contact. Jane shivered. No. That wasn’t it. She’d recognized the difference. She just hadn’t felt that kind of drowning heat in a long time. Her insides burned to close the distance between them for another passing glimpse of it, however fleeting.

But Sullivan’s reaction had been simple biology. There’d been a naked woman pressed against him and his body had responded. He didn’t want her. Because no matter how many heated moments they shared, how many times they laughed together or how long they talked, Sullivan blamed her for his brother’s suicide. Plain and simple.

“I’m already having the files brought from your town house by another operative on my team,” he said.

Pressure built behind her sternum. Sullivan might not use all of his training from his military days for Blackhawk Security, but from what she’d read of him, he never missed a clue. She cleared her throat, stuffing her hands into her sweatshirt pockets. “Good idea. I’ve already gone through most of them, but another set of eyes might uncover something I missed.”

Jane’s stomach growled again.

“You need to eat and rest before Elliot gets here with the files.” Sullivan stood, his wide shoulders blocking her view of the living room and the fire popping and cracking in the fireplace. Muscles flexed across his chest and arms, and Jane swallowed the rush of saliva filling her mouth. “I don’t come up here often so I’m sorry to say there’s nothing more than a few MREs lying around, but there should be enough in the duffel bags we brought to last us three days.” He searched the living room. “Where did you put the bags after I tried to kill myself out there? I’ll make us something to eat.”

Jane’s responding smile to his willingness to feed her disappeared. Exhaling, she ran her hand through her hair. Crap. “I left them outside. I wasn’t thinking after I pulled you in—”

“Don’t worry about it.” He stepped right into her, that massive chest of his brushing against her. Staring down at her, Sullivan bent at the knees to look her right in the eye, his hands posed above her arms as though he didn’t dare touch her. And she didn’t blame him. The difference in height between them was laughable, but she appreciated the even ground now. His hands rested around her upper arms. Her insides flipped as his body heat spread through her, but she didn’t pull away. “You had your priorities straight. You saved my life. I’ll get them. About how far did you drop them?”

Good. He’d just go get them. Her breathing eased the longer he kept his grip on her, but it took a few seconds to clear her head of his proximity enough to answer. “Beyond the tree line. I don’t think it snowed enough to cover my tracks. You should be able to follow them to the bags.”

“All right. And when I get back, we’ll call Anchorage PD to have them put an APB out for that tow truck.” He dropped his hold on her, spinning toward his discarded gear drying over the fireplace. A shiver rushed through her, but Jane held her ground as Sullivan donned his shoulder holster and thick coat. He reached under the built-in desk where the keyboard drawer clicked into place and removed a Glock, disengaged the magazine and pulled back the slide to check the chamber. He moved in quick, confident steps to reload the magazine and put a round in the chamber as though he’d done the same moves a thousand times before. Which he probably had. “I shouldn’t be gone more than five minutes.” He checked the batteries in the flashlight next. “If anything happens while I’m out there, use the burner phone to call the last number I dialed. It’ll put you directly through to my guy Elliot. He’s the closest right now, and he’ll get here as fast as he can.”

Jane nodded. He wouldn’t be gone more than a few minutes, but she pointed toward the gun. “Do you have an extra one of those for me? Just in case.” They’d already proved anything could happen. For crying out loud, a tow truck had blindsided them on purpose. She wasn’t about to make it easier for this psychopath to get to her.

A smile lit up his features before he turned toward what she assumed was the only bedroom in the cabin. Mere seconds later, he handed her another Glock. “This is my service weapon from the SEALs and my favorite gun. If you have to shoot it outside for any reason, make sure there’s no snow in the barrel and that you’ve warmed it up. Otherwise, it might blow up in your hands.”

“I went through weapons training, too, remember? I know how to handle my guns in cold weather.” Jane hit the button to disengage the magazine and pulled back the slide to clear the chamber, just as Sullivan had done with his own gun. Faster than she thought possible, the guarded curiosity in Sullivan’s eyes changed to something dark, primal. She clenched her lower abdomen. Air stalled in her throat. She focused on the gun in her hand. “Besides, you won’t be gone that long. I’m sure I can manage to take care of myself for five minutes.”

“Of that—” he secured the Glock he’d taken from under the desk in his shoulder holster, eyes scanning her from head to toe “—I have no doubt.” Sullivan disappeared out the door without looking back.

The goose bumps along her forearms receded the longer Jane stared after him. There was no denying it now. She’d seen the way he’d looked at her, the way he’d held on to her earlier. He wanted the intel she’d called in a few favors to get, the one with his real identity inside. Because there was no way that man wanted her for any other reason. No matter how deep he’d buried his past, she’d uncovered the truth and she’d known the second she confronted him with it, she would pay for using blackmail. What was he going to do? Torture her with desire until she gave him everything she had on him and his family?

Jane leaned against the countertop, Sullivan’s service weapon comfortable in her grip. Now that she thought about it, torture by desire was one of the better ways to go. Especially with a six-foot-four, muscled, powerfully built SEAL. A smile pulled at her lips. Crap, she imagined that outcome between them all too easily. The heat, the explosion of passion, the—

The front door slammed open and her muscle memory hefted the gun up. She aimed, ready to pull the trigger. Adrenaline pumped fast through her veins as Sullivan swung his head around the thick, wooden door. Jane dropped the gun to her side, heart beating a mile a second. She could’ve shot him. “You scared me to death. Do you always barge into a room like that?”

Sullivan stomped his boots on the mat at the door, then headed straight for the burner phone on the kitchen counter. He brushed against her, but instead of heat penetrating through her jacket like before, she only felt cold. Something was wrong. Stabbing the pad of his thumb into the keypad, he brought the phone up to his ear, those sea-blue eyes glued on her. Darkness etched into his expression, and Jane took a step back to give him some space. “The bags are gone.”