The Omega Team: Spurs (Kindle Worlds Novella) (5 page)

Ryder eased Isbet to her feet, and they clung together, panting, for a few minutes. As the water started to cool around them—damn ancient plumbing—he quickly soaped her up and she did the same for him. Goose bumps rising on both their bodies, they rubbed shampoo into their hair and rinsed. They toweled off, ran together to the bed, and hopped under the covers.

“I may never be warm again!” She giggled and cuddled close to him. “You weren’t kidding about your plumbing problems.”

He wrapped his arm around her, loving the feel of her skin against his even if they were both chilled. The breeze fluttering the window curtains held the chill of a final burst of snow at the highest elevations. The pasture where the plane landed was almost high enough to get a dusting. Not so the cattle would suffer, but not conducive to airplanes. Also, any strangers who might have been left behind would likely head downhill toward the ranch.

It irked him to have Carson and Andrew, probably taking turns with Sarge, watching the house while he slept. He hadn’t trained to protect his country and his team members for so many years to lie down while trouble brewed. Usually, an injured soldier would be behind the lines, in the hospital, maybe even back home. But if they were still in the field? They were still on duty.

Beside him, Isbet sighed and her breathing evened out. If he hadn’t been injured, he’d never have let their evening end after only one relatively short encounter. He wanted to make her come over and over, to make her want to stay with him instead of just spending tonight together. Why couldn’t they get to know one another? She didn’t have to leave right away, did she? While it was too soon to use the word “love,” he liked her a lot. Desired her more. Hoped to convince her to hang out a while.

And he’d neglected to use a condom in the shower. What kind of irresponsible asshole did that? She might be on the pill or some other form of long-term birth control. She hadn’t asked about protection…. But what if Isbet had just been as carried away as he had? After a day with such excitement, such a serious problem to address, her mind might have, like his, been focused in another direction entirely.

Sex offered a great stress release.

What if their stress release led to a little soldier to call their own? Of course, he’d be there for a kid, whether they had a relationship or not, but he’d always imagined when he did have a child, it would be when he finished his military career and settled down to…ranch or run a hardware store in town.

Isbet rolled away from him, and he let her go. The breeze from the window continued, but they were warm enough under the quilts not to get up and deal with it yet.

He had the strangest fantasies. But they’d sounded so good when he was on a mission where he wasn’t sure he’d make it back. To see a time when he retired, a successful soldier ready to take on civilian life.

For now, he did not have the type of life, of job, that made for a happy home life, and, if his career was whipped away from him, he’d be left depressed, a sad semi-rancher with one leg and other health problems that did not scream out pater familia. Still, he reached out and brushed a soft, damp curl from Isbet’s cheek. He should close the window before she caught cold.

Sitting up, he put his feet on the floor and glanced down. Shit. The plastic was still around his leg. He unwound it and groaned.

“Ryder?”

“Sshh. Go back to sleep. I’m just going to close the window.”

She pushed herself to sit up, pillow marks on her cheek in the moonlight streaming into the room. “Is that the plastic? Did we leave it on your leg?” She was on her feet in an instant. “We need to rebandage you right away.” She clicked on the bedside lamp and dug in the drawer, coming around the bed with gauze.

“I can do that, Isbet. It feels much better, really.”

She yawned and knelt in front of him, a position he really liked her in but for other reasons. “No, let me. Consider it part of our fun evening together.

Resting back on his elbows, he watched her bend over his leg and peel back the bandage. “Is it wet?”

“No, maybe just a little damp.” She set it aside and tore open an antibiotic wipe. “Hold still.”

He clenched his fists and breathed through his nose. “It’s never going to heal.”

“You strained it this afternoon. I’m sure it will get better again.” She placed a rectangle of sterile gauze over the wound and taped it loosely in place. “There you go.”

Ryder scooted back on the bed, deflated. “No, nobody has ever healed from this thing. The Vibora kills everyone it touches. I’m just going to be the next one.” Any consideration he’d had of making another move on her faded. The shower had been epic. Lifting her like that while they fucked like happy bunnies was a heck of a way to make love for the last time. He couldn’t continue to build anything with a woman when he was a dead man walking. He shivered. “Could you close the window? I’m a little cold.”

Rising to her feet, Isbet shot him an indecipherable look but headed for the window without a word. The sheer white curtains billowed around her naked form, moonlight ethereal on her skin. She glowed. Like an angel. Arms over her head, she tugged on the old wood frame. “It won’t budge.” She lifted on tiptoes and grunted. “Nope, can’t do it. Can I get a hand here?”

His leg throbbed like a son of a bitch, but Ryder forced it to the floor and stood. “I hate this house, sometimes. Andrew is so busy on the ranch he doesn’t have time to make the repairs it needs.”

As he limped toward her, Isbet rested a hip on the sill. “Can’t he hire someone?”

“Until the new stock starts to pay, we are dependent on the guests just to make ends meet. For now, it’s do it ourselves or not at all.” Arriving at her side, he grabbed the top of the window and started to shove, but she tugged on his arm.

“No, wait.”

“Huh?”

She placed a finger over his mouth. “Sshh. Listen.”

He poked his head outside, sorting the nighttime sounds. The wind through the aspens and cottonwoods had a unique sound that always reminded him of home like frogs down in the stream, an owl hunting a distance away. Cattle lowed from the meadow just beyond the larger barn. People thought the country was quiet, but it had its own nighttime chorus. Better than sirens and other people’s heavy bass, but it could rival the decibel level. A horse neighed then things settled back somewhat. Music from the other wing where the guest rooms were.

Nothing of note, however. He arched a brow and she mouthed, “Wait for it.”

He strained, holding his breath, and heard it. “An engine.” Just for a moment and gone again. Pretty far away, but not as far as the highway.

“Yes,” she murmured. “Are any of the cowboys on ATV tonight?”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “At least I didn’t hear any heading out. And that’s not the right direction for the pastures in use this time of year.” He lapsed into silence, and, sure enough, the low growl came again, closer this time. “Definitely downslope.”

“Wasn’t Andrew going to have the crew cover the whole property?”

He rested a hip on the sill. How surreal to be here in this moonlit bedroom with a woman who, not only cared so deeply for people, but also made him rock hard, could think on her feet, and could hike and run with the best of them. “We’d better get dressed and go find out.” And didn’t it suck when he wanted nothing more than to take Isbet back to bed and see if she’d like to play with a few things from his drawer. Oh crap. He suddenly could picture the drawer where he’d left the plastic wrap. The one above, with all the hospital junk was pretty full, so he’d stuffed it in the toy drawer below.

She had to have seen some of the stuff in there. But she hadn’t said a word. Why not?

“Ryder?”

“What?”

She’d been pretty shy about undressing. But not about finding a riding crop and his favorite spurs for sensation play? To him they were sex toys, but to her maybe just the usual cowboy paraphernalia.

“We’d better get dressed and find Andrew and Carson. At least determine whether there is a worry. Or, if you’re not up to it, I can go.”

God, she made it easy to be distracted. Enough time in her arms and he’d forget his wound and the danger to the ranch and the country. “Right. We’ll go now.”

And if, as was likely, the engine came from a Carmichael Ranch employee, he’d bring her back up here and see if he couldn’t talk her into a little session with some of his favorite things.

“Where are we going to find the guys?” Isbet slipped her arms into a black sweatshirt with a gym logo over her left breast. “The office?”

“Not sure.” Ryder started down the hall. “It’s as good a place to start as anywhere.”

She hung back, treating herself to the back view again. How many men could have such a terrible injury and still look fabulous in jeans? If she hadn’t seen the horrible wound herself, she’d have had a hard time believing he was even hurt at all.

She probably should have left as soon as she’d finished her job. It would have been the professional thing to do. Her former boss waited for her, in fact, with yet another “just one more assignment, Isbet, we promise.”

They peered into the dark office and continued down the hallway. “They might be in the kitchen,” Isbet said, peeking into each door as they passed. “Or outside?”

“Yeah, could be.” Ryder stopped at a table just inside the kitchen and picked up a handheld radio. “But since I don’t see any lights down here at all except for the hallway, I think I’ll try to raise them this way.”

Isbet hopped up to sit on the counter next to the big old farmhouse sink and let her legs swing. “Okay. That’s one of the radios we should have had, huh?”

“Yeah. Ever use one of these?” He pressed a button on the device and held up his hand. “Andrew, you out there somewhere?” He waited and tried again. “Carson, you on watch?” Nothing. “Okay. This may be a problem or it may not.”

Isbet reached for a glass from a cupboard behind her and filled it with water. “Where else can we look?” They didn’t know which of the men was even on watch duty. “I can check their bedrooms if you tell me which ones they are.”

He sat down on a barstool beside her. “Do you always sit on counters?”

“Is that really what you’re concerned with?” She slid off to stand between his knees. “I am very confused. It could be because I’ve had a long day and only a couple of hours of sleep, but I usually do pretty well on less.” Combing her fingers through his hair, she sighed and rested her forehead against his. “But I am getting the feeling this thing between us is distracting you as much as it is me. And that’s not good.”

“What branch of the military did you say you served in?” he murmured against her lips and kissed her softly. “Army?”

She chuckled. “I never said I was in the military. I wasn’t, in fact.”

“You sure seem to have the training. You’re in great shape, make a good plan, and you got all the way home and back so fast, you must have run all the way there.”

“I could be a marathon runner.”

“Not with these curves.” His fingers dug into her

Their breathing was loud in the quiet kitchen. Even the night sounds didn’t penetrate the first floor. Better insulation, maybe. And the windows were closed. If they couldn’t hear the wind or the owls or the frogs, they couldn’t hear a distant engine growl either. Could they hear it if it came closer? His hands gripped her hips, bringing her body closer to him, but, with one final kiss on the lips, she shifted away. “Okay, well, doesn’t matter. What does is whether the engine we heard is a legitimate employee or someone who could bring harm to your family.”

“Spoken like a true operative.”

“Let it go, Ryder.” His career might be over through no fault of his own, but she still tried to end hers. “It’s not something I like to think about. I’m just an ordinary citizen, a private eye with a certain level of physical fitness appropriate for my job, okay?”

“For now.”

Voices came from the front of the house, and she sighed with relief. “There they are.”

Andrew and Carson came into the kitchen, heads close together, talking. “Hey, what are you two doing down here?” Andrew asked. “Weren’t you asleep?”

“Yeah, but something came up.” Isbet frowned at them. “And weren’t you guys going to take turns on watch?”

Carson nodded. “Yes, but I got a message from Omega. Athena has a contact at a lab in Reno who agreed to run some tests on that little item after regular business hours. We had to get it to the tech tonight because she’s leaving tomorrow morning for a conference in D.C.”

“You don’t think we should have sent it to the government lab already working on this?” Ryder asked, chewing his lip.

Carson laughed. “Athena’s ‘tech’ is a fifteen-year-old genius attending Cal Tech this fall. The daughter of a friend of hers. I have more faith in this kid than the system.”

“Were you on an ATV then, downhill from here, toward the highway?”

“Yeah.” Carson opened the refrigerator door and took out the pitcher of sweet tea. “That was me.”

“Looks like we wasted our time coming down,” Ryder said. “We heard an engine and wanted to see if it was one of ours. You didn’t take one of those Mules all the way to Reno, though.”