Elite Metal-ARE-epub (33 page)

“Are you insane?”

“Nope.” He dropped her hands then swept his arm across the counter, sending the coffee maker and canisters flying in all directions. “If I make it look like you didn’t go willingly, Chesterfield has no reason to go after your daughter.”

“You don’t know that.”

“It’s all I’ve got to work with. And I’m not leaving you behind. Trust me on this, sunshine.”

“Trust you?
Upfh
—”

He stuffed a bandanna in her mouth and tied the ends around the back of her head. “I’ll explain when we get someplace safe, but go ahead and start fighting me now. It’ll make all this look more believable.”

Sweet baby Jesus. He
was
insane. Did he take one too many concussive blows to the head in the military?

Her vision swam as he pitched her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a sack of feathers and her face smacked against the solid wall of his back. She beat her fists against his denim-covered backside and it actually hurt her hands. He was all muscle without any give to his flesh.

She kicked and bucked, but his strong grip held her in place and his stride never faltered as he walked out into the sunshine. Spots formed in her vision from the bright light, and the rush of blood to her head muffled her hearing. Shouts came from all directions and the
pop-pop-pop
of gunshot erupted, freezing the air in her lungs.

No!
Her mind screamed, and for a moment the fear of losing Scott again overrode any fear she had of Brandon’s potential retaliation.

She craned her neck around as best she could and saw three bodies lying in the lush green grass. Her fingers dug into his jeans and she felt her eyes bulge in shock.

Did he just calmly kill three men?

When her eyeballs began to dry, she blinked and saw the red-furry tip of a dart protruding from one of the men’s chest. A blue light winked from the end and rolled up and down the slim metal tube.

“Don’t worry, sunshine. They’re not dead. But when the electric shock wears off, they might wish they were.” There was a hint of laughter in his voice.

Grass gave way to asphalt, and the sound of a car door opening preceded Scott dropping her onto the backseat of a big black car. The interior was so humid, she felt ready to pass out.

As soon as her butt hit the scorching-hot leather, Scott closed the door then took his place behind the wheel. “Hang on tight. I’ll cut you free as soon as we’re clear.”

Tires squealed as he slammed down on the gas pedal, and she flew back against the seat. She flailed like a turtle on its back as she rolled into an upright position. Her fingernails scraped against her cheeks as she worked the bandanna over her chin with her bound hands.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” she screeched as soon as the cloth cleared her mouth.

“Not today.” He tossed her a smile over his shoulder. “If I hadn’t told you yet, it’s good to see you. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

“You— I— you can’t—” she sputtered, then everything inside her melted and she sank into her seat. How could she stay mad when he looked at her with such joy? “I— I missed you, too.”

The smile he threw her way widened and stole what little breath she had left. Damn, she had forgotten how cute he was. No.
Cute
wasn’t the right word. He had been cute during their freshman year of college. Back then he had been tall and lean, with his tight jeans and cowboy boots. He had been the quiet and adorable sidekick to Jason’s blond, outspoken superhero persona.

The man sitting before her now was just that, a man. Big, brawny and so frickin’ masculine, she was surprised she hadn’t fallen over from his pheromones alone when she had first opened the door to him. Perhaps if she hadn’t been so surprised to see him standing there, she’d be a quivering heap on the floor right now. This wasn’t the shy kid from small-town Washington. This was a one hundred percent badass.

Who just shot his way out of the home of a criminal. A criminal with connections.

This craziness had to end. She leaned forward and grasped the headrest of his seat. “Scott, you have got to take me back.”

“No.”

“Yes.” She fought down the terror climbing up her throat. “Brandon knows people.”

“I know people too.”

“He will come after you. Even if it’s just to salvage his pride. No one steals from him.”

“Then I’m honored to be the first.”

She pounded her fist on the headrest. “This isn’t funny.”

“And I’m not laughing.”

“Scott, I’m scared,” she whispered.

The tan hand he placed over her clenched fists looked strong enough to crush her bones. “Of me?” he asked in a murmur.

She glanced up and met his gaze in the reflection of the rearview mirror. In the narrow rectangle, only his eyes were visible, and there she saw the boy she remembered from her past. That same hesitant, shy gaze that had given her comfort whenever he looked her way.

“No. I’m not scared of you.”

He released a slow breath. “Then there is nothing you have to be scared of.”

“Ugg.” She closed her eyes on a groan. “Spoken like a true man. This is serious shit.”

He snorted with laughter. “I have never heard you swear so much before.”

“I can assure you, that won’t be the last time,” she grumbled.

“Come on. Relax. No one is following us. Big shocker. Not. Climb into the front and I’ll cut you lose.”

A glance to the right, left, and out the back window followed by another rotation assured her he was telling the truth. The fear was still present in her system, leaving her cold and shaky, but her adrenaline begin to ebb and a slightly more easy breath managed to leave her lungs. She stood into a crouch and tried not to smack her head against the roof or knee him in the face as she crawled between the seats.

“Hand me that bag there,” he said, gesturing to the backpack at her feet. From inside he withdrew a wicked-looking knife. “Hold out your hands.”

The flex of muscles in his forearm as he sliced the blade through the plastic fascinated her far more than it should have.

Once her hands were free, she socked him in the biceps and winced as a throbbing pain rolled up her fingers. “Ow.”

“Strap in,” he said with a chuckle, then took the on-ramp to the freeway on two wheels.

Jerk. Couldn’t he have at least acted as if she had inflicted some pain?

“Where are we going?” she asked as she rubbed her sore knuckles.

“We’re going to lie low for a little bit. I’m kinda breaking a million rules just by being with you.”

“Then why did you come for me?”

He scoffed and looked at her with disbelief. “Are you kidding? Did you honestly think I was going to leave you with Chesterfield?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Yeah, it is. I’m gonna try to not be offended that you think I’d just leave you. Forget about you. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about you, Beth.”

“Really?”

“Really.” And the deep rasp of his voice sent a tickling heat through her body that made her feel giddy, almost girlish, as if she were back in high school again and the hunkiest guy in class said he had a crush on her.

It was a rush that she remembered well, as that exact situation had actually happened to her years before. Second week in a new school in a tiny town, she had quickly been labeled an outcast because her family hadn’t been there since the first apple trees had been planted in the valley. To her shock and amazement, the star football player had come up to her, the awkward new girl who walked with her head down and binder clasped to her chest, and asked her out. He had made her feel pretty and special, and for that she had been willing to follow him to the ends of the world.

And she had. Well, at least as far as Texas.

And even as his star soared higher, and more people wanted a piece of him, changing him from the man she once knew into a stranger, she stayed by his side.

Why? Why had she stayed with Jason for so long?

Had she really been so dazzled, so afraid of being alone, that she put up with the drinking and arrogance and unexplained absences?

Yes. Yes, she had. And therein lay the tragedy.

Yeah, she had her regrets. Too, too many to count.

Was Scott now going to be another to add to the list?

“How much trouble are you going to be in, Scott? Really?”

“Don’t you worry about that, sweetheart. Besides, they owe me,” he said with a bite in his tone that made her shiver.

“Who are ’they’?” she asked, ’cause whoever they were, they were in for a royal smackdown if the glint in his eyes was any indication.

“My team. Speaking of which, as much as I love hearing you say my name, you better get used to calling me ‘Adamantium.’ ”

“That’s certainly a mouthful.”

He laughed. “I know. It sucks when I’m filling out paperwork, but I love it when someone has to say it fast, and the look on my CO’s face when I chose it was priceless. Anyway, most of the time they call me Ant.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m one of the smaller guys on the team.”

She drank in his broad shoulders and his biceps that were as wide as her head and gasped. “
You’re
the smallest?”

“Technically, Copper is, but she’s a girl. Don’t tell her that, though.” He winked.

“Are they your Marine group?”

“Yes and no.” He took a quick glance around as if he were expecting someone to jump onto the car from out of nowhere. “Look, what I’m about to tell you is top secret. Beyond top secret.”

“Then don’t tell me. I don’t want you in any more trouble than you are.”

“No. You deserve to know the truth. And from the moment I approached you at Bone Daddy’s, you were already involved.”

Despite what she might have told him earlier, she was eager to learn what he had been up to the last few years.

“I had been accepted into a recon group and was heading out to meet up with them the last time I saw you.”

“I remember. That’s why you and Jason went out. One last night of debauchery before you had to deploy.”

To her surprise a blush crept up his neck and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Yeah, well, in recon we do the missions no one else has the balls to do. Missions that not even the top levels of government know about or even want to imagine are done. A few years ago, my team and two others were sent on a buy to take out an arms dealer. Unbeknownst to the undercover agent, she had been compromised and the entire thing was a setup. We lost a lot of crew that night, including an entire team.”

On the last word his voice cracked, and he paused to take a breath. The sapphire of his eyes shimmered with the emotion he held in check. Without a moment’s hesitation, she reached out and laid her hand on his thigh. The muscles jumped under her palm before he covered her hand with his own.

“We, uh.” He cleared his throat. “We were forced to disband, and due to the nature of our missions, go into hiding. I couldn’t go back to anything of my former life.”

“And that’s when word went out Scott Maguire died.”

He nodded.

“There was an article about you in the Dallas paper. Former A&M student killed in action. The reporter even talked to your family back home in Washington. Your mother was devastated.”

“That’s what I regret most, lying to my family. Well, second most.” His grip on her hand tightened, and the look he gave her sent those little tendrils of heat racing through her body again. For half a second, she thought he was going to close the distance between them and kiss her. Kiss her real good.

Crazy as the thought was, she wanted him to.

Holy hell. She was losing her mind. Here she was, barreling down the highway in a three-ton Charger, kidnapped from her bookie-boyfriend, facing the potential wrath of an elite military unit, and all she could think about was crawling into his lap and finding out how he kissed. Scott. Scotty “Long Legs” Maguire.

God, she was so fucked in the head.

She pulled her hand out from under his and curled it into her lap. “So you settled back in Texas and became a biker?”

He stared at her clasped hands for a moment before answering. “No. I moved to Oregon. Worked for a video game designer.”

The announcement made her chuckle. “Why am I not surprised? You were always drawing or doodling on something when you weren’t playing video games. I remember the mural you painted on the gym wall. You had such talent.”

A flush crept up his cheeks again. “Thanks. The job let me work from home part time, out of the public eye, and I was able to combine my art and military knowledge.” His lips stretched into a proud smile. “My version of
Marine Commando Six
made it the bestselling game in the series.”

“
Marine Commando
?” The title made her spine straighten. “Was that the game where the objective is to take down a terrorist organization in Europe? Chasing them through Siberia and diving in the Baltic Sea? And there’s a level in Monte Carlo that if you pass, you get to hook up with an operative named Elizabeth?”

He looked at her in surprise, and his earlier blush paled to a sickly white color. “You’ve heard of it?”

“That was you?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Her gut told her his answer before she asked the question. “That operative looked a lot like me. Was that on purpose?”

He shifted in his seat. “Maybe.”

“That makes so much more sense now.” She laughed. “Some of Brandon’s contacts would say how much I looked like this video game character and how happy they were to finally have a chance to fuck—” She sucked in a breath and glanced out the window, suddenly fascinated by the sagebrush flying past them.

Beside her, Scott, no—Adamantium—tensed to the point she thought he’d shatter. Well…too bad. No matter how much she wished it, the past could not be changed. Besides, he was the one who designed that character to look like her in the first place.

Why did he do that?

After several awkward minutes passed, Adamantium cleared his throat. His poor vocal chords must have been rubbed raw by now.

“As I was saying, I’m in Texas now because my cover was compromised. All of our covers were compromised. We’ve been brought back together to right some wrongs and take down the asshole who set us up. To the outside world, we’re a motorcycle club, but we do a helluva lot more than ride bikes and drink beer.”