The Shadow of Mudflap (A Foxtrot Team Novel #1) (15 page)

A team. Mudflap. The two of them had certainly been a team this afternoon when they’d been completely intertwined with each other.

She hadn’t allowed herself much time to dwell on what happened today, but there was no denying the sex between them had been life-altering. Never had she experienced that deep of a connection with another man. Never. It excited her. It exhilarated her. It terrified her.

Even now, watching him, the strum of awareness spun through her, filling her with butterflies. His eyes met hers for a moment and softened. The tenderness in his gaze slayed her. This was so different from anything she’d ever felt before. She liked it and that was more paralyzing than anything else. There was a reason she had her three date rule. She’d broken it today and already her heart wrenched with the thought of losing him, which was inevitable. That’s the way relationships— all relationships— worked.

Then the two commanders came out and she couldn’t dwell on it any longer because it was time to concentrate on their instructions.

Basically, TC and Mudflap were supposed to confront Coach Allred tomorrow at practice, with Shanae and the team standing by in case they needed LiFT’s assistance. Nobody thought the assistant coach was dangerous, just sneaky. There was also the possibility that he was being blackmailed, since they discovered some inconsistencies in his bank accounts. They planned to exploit that and hopefully get some information out of him so they could get ahead of these guys. They needed some information. It was time for them to catch a break.

Game 8 Results:

Texas Tech (8): 47

vs.

University of Oklahoma (2): 35

Week 9: When the Game-Plan Goes to Hell

Mudflap

The next morning, TC and Mudflap entered the offices at the training center within a few minutes of each other. The plan was to confront Coach Allred together, but when TC went to search him out, the coach was nowhere to be found. No one had seen or heard from him or knew where he was.

An hour into the morning practice drills, word finally arrived.

Coach Allred had been on his way into work and had a car accident. It was a one vehicle accident with no witnesses, but his truck ran head-on into a tree and burst into flames. He never had a chance. A chill ran down Mudflap’s spine as he listened to the news from TC, who was struggling to hold it together. This was just too coincidental for this to have been an accident. In addition, the details were eerily reminiscent of Grant’s father’s death.

This had never been a joke, but now someone had actually died. Coach Allred’s death drove home the danger for the team and those around him that he loved. TC, Shanae, the entire football team…they were all at risk and that terrified him.

By lunchtime, that fear had morphed into anger. He needed to know who to blame.

He searched out Shanae and found her down in one of the treatment rooms with a couple of other paramedics. Wearing normal paramedic gear of a t-shirt, cargo pants, and lace up boots, she’d never looked more beautiful. His breath caught and his heart hammered in his chest. At the sight of her, simply standing there, discussing something with the two men, he had to resist the urge to pick her up and carry her out of here, away from the danger stalking the team. If anything happened to her, he didn’t think he could handle it. Just the thought of it took his breath away.

She looked up at him, frowning at whatever she could see on his face before she came over to him in the doorway. “Are you okay?”

“Not really, no.” He stared at her, visualizing her bloody and dying. It wasn’t something he could live with. “Can I talk to you?”

She gave him a hesitant nod and turned back to the men. “Hey guys, I’ll be right back.”

The guys shot them curious glances, but Mudflap ignored them as he set a hand in the small of Shanae’s back. He pushed her to a private room a few doors down.

As soon as the door shut behind them, he pressed her up against it. An inexplicable need to feel her breathing, her heart beating against him, rose inside. He needed to know she was alive and safe even if it was just for the moment. Desperation rose and he brushed a soft, searching kiss against her lips. She responded immediately by opening her mouth to him with a groan and tugging him harder against her. She felt so damn good, so perfect, with her body flush against his.

By the time he pulled away, they were both breathing hard. He ran his hand up her side and traced just under her breast. Her breath hitched and he closed his eyes against the draw of her. This wasn’t why he dragged her back here. It was time to get back on course.

“I didn’t get to talk to you alone after the craziness last night.” He ignored the husky tone to his voice as he cleared his throat. “Thank you for yesterday. You were amazing.”

“Hmm,” she purred as she cupped his erection, throbbing against the confining fly of his jeans. “It was my pleasure.”

Stifling a groan and the urge to thrust against her hand, he kissed the top of her head. “I didn’t bring you here to maul you, although that’s really tempting.” He growled and tried to convince his body to withdraw from her fucking fantastic touch. “We need to talk.”

She took a step away from him, with a flash of hurt and distrust in her eyes.

Realizing what that sounded like, he immediately corrected. “No, not that kind of talk.” That was the furthest thing from his mind. “Damn, did you miss how perfect we fit together yesterday?” He shook his head at her. “Darlin’, what’s between us is good. I’m not gonna give that up. I want to talk to you about this operation and what you know. Friday night, you were with Riley.” He watched her closely and hated the guarded, still look that came over her. “Does he have something to do with what’s going on here? Is he a suspect?”

“Mudflap, I’ve told you all I’m allowed to tell you at this point.”

He clenched his jaw. He figured as much, but hoped he could get more out of her. “Okay, I won’t press.” He’d string Riley up by the balls himself if he had to, anything to keep Shanae, TC, and these kids safe.

Brushing a thumb across the side of her cheek, he gazed into her eyes. “You know I care about you, right?”

She nodded.

Relief flooded him that they were on the same page there although she still wasn’t safe. He wanted her away from the danger. “Can I convince you to back out of this case? We both know the Coach’s death this morning wasn’t an accident. I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to you.”

She reached up and grabbed hold of his hand. “Hey, it’s okay. This is my job and I’m damn good at it. I’ll be okay, I promise.”

“You can’t make a promise like that.”

“You’re right, I can’t. I could get hit on the Marsha Sharp Freeway tomorrow, but when it comes to my job, I know what I’m doing. I’ll be fine.” She reached up on tip toes, caressed his cheek with her lips and whispered in his ear, “I really need you to stay safe too, okay?”

He swallowed hard and nodded, praying that everyone stayed safe from here on out. But the growing dread in his belly warned him that probably wasn’t going to be the case.

* * *

The rest of the week was subdued as a pall hung over everything. They had Coach Allred’s funeral on Thursday, on top of a week’s worth of hard, long, quiet practices. Worry about the tough away game in Austin against Texas loomed and that certainly didn’t help anything.

Mudflap worried as he glanced around the buses at the milling groups of players in the pre-dawn hours. They were about to head out for the game against Texas and these boys were not ready mentally for what was shaping up to be their toughest game yet this season. With the National Championship on the line for both teams, this was a make or break week for the Red Raiders.

Lines of stress bracketed TC’s mouth as he corralled the players onto the buses. All the intel seemed to point that the danger for them was entirely within the Lubbock city limits, but the Austin Foxtrot Teams were standing by just in case. In the meantime, they were down to a fairly small number of security personnel on this trip, although it was higher than it had been for their last away game with the events of this week.

Shanae and Cord from the Lubbock Foxtrot Team were riding on another bus, much to Mudflap’s dismay. He would have liked to have ridden with her, but he would just have to be satisfied with the time he’d had with her in his bed the night before. A satisfied smile crept over his face. Everything else in their world may have gone to crap, but things seemed really good between the two of them.

Mudflap looked up as Ridge, the freshman receiver, walked up to him.

“Do you have any aspirin?” he asked. “My head is killing me this morning.”

Besides exhaustion from the early morning hour, Mudflap didn’t see any signs that Ridge had been out partying the night before, but he still had to ask. “Hangover?”

“No, too many all-nighters this week. I had a huge trig exam yesterday worth half my grade, plus with the game and the coach dying… I just haven’t been able to sleep.”

“Okay.” Mudflap nodded as he dug into his pocket for his keys. He looked around the parking lot. They still probably had around ten minutes before the buses pulled out. “The med kits are already packed in the buses, but there’s some aspirin in my desk. If we hustle, we can go grab you some. But we need to hurry, because Coach Davidson isn’t in the mood to wait for our asses this morning.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, kid.” He waved over to Shanae, standing next to the other bus, to let her know they’d be right back. She gave a quick nod and then went back to work on the clipboard with the checklist for her bus.

The two of them headed back toward the offices and Mudflap looked around at the shadows in the corners for anything out of place. There was a Texas Tech maintenance truck which wasn’t normally there, but they were supposed to be doing some sort of work on the heating system in the building over the weekend while the team was out of town. Mudflap chalked it up to being there for that.

As they entered the training facility, all was quiet. Everyone was already outside by the buses and all the equipment had been loaded the night before. Their footsteps echoed down the quiet hall.

When they got to the offices, Mudflap unlocked the door and headed to his desk. The aspirin were right where he’d left them. He shook a couple out onto Ridge’s palm and then grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge so he could wash the medicine down.

“Head out to the bus. I’ll relock everything and be right behind you. If the coach realizes you aren’t out there right now, he’s gonna chew your ass.”

“Thanks, Mudflap.”

He followed the kid out and stopped to relock the office door. Ridge took off jogging down the hall, ready to hit the road. Mudflap followed more slowly, rubbing at the back of his neck. Something seemed off, but as he glanced around, he sure couldn’t see what it might be. All was quiet and it didn’t look like anything was out of place.

Damn, he was tired and could really use some coffee. Hesitating at the exterior doors to the building, he still couldn’t see that anything was wrong. Shaking his head, he turned back to the door to lock it.

A glint of gold in the corner of the entrance caught his eye. He bent down to pick up what looked to be another coin, but it was hard to tell exactly in the dim pre-dawn light.

There was a split-second of time between the blast of noise, the incredible heat across his back, and his head meeting the crumbling brick wall of the training facility. Then all he knew was darkness.

Shanae

(Five minutes earlier)

A shiver of awareness slid down her spine as she watched Mudflap walk away with the team’s star receiver. Damn, the man was built. She thought about the things he’d done to her in his bed last night, and in his shower, and against his wall. A shiver of want ran through her. Hmm…

“Shanae!”

“What?”

“You just missed two players climbing onto the bus.” Cord smirked at her distraction. “I think someone is smitten.”

Heat flooded her cheeks. Damn. Thank God it was dark out here. Was she actually blushing? She hadn’t blushed since she was twelve. Living on the racetrack had broken her of that a long time ago. Maybe some deflection would work. “Smitten? Really? Are you sure you’re a guy, Cord?”

He just grinned cockily and she resisted the urge to grind her teeth.

“Maybe you should go catch him for a goodbye kiss before we take off on separate buses. I can handle this here.”

She glanced at the clipboard and then back to where Mudflap had disappeared around the corner. A goodbye kiss would be nice. She winked at Cord as she shoved the clipboard at him. “Thanks. I’ll be right back.” She took off at a fast trot toward the building.

She was almost there when she literally ran into Ridge as he came barreling around the corner. They danced for a moment when he grabbed her to steady her. A blast of heat and noise slammed them to the ground, Ridge dead weight on top of her. A profound ringing buzzed in her ears.

She tried to get her confused brain working again. Did something explode?

It took a moment for the world to come back into alignment.

“Shanae, are you okay?” Cord yelled as he gingerly moved Ridge’s weight off her.

Taking stock, everything hurt, but she seemed to just be bruised and banged up. But if that was the case, why was there blood everywhere? She turned back to Ridge in a panic. He’d taken the brunt of the explosion and probably saved her. She assessed his injuries. He’d taken several pieces of shrapnel to his back and his left leg was obviously broken.

The memory of where she’d been headed flooded back. She swung a horrified gaze to the smoldering building, a building where Mudflap had been moments before. With trembling legs, she stood, planning to get to that doorway of the building right around the corner, but Cord grabbed her and held her still as he whispered in her ear, “Hang on. You have a patient right here that needs your help first. There are other emergency personnel over there to help him.”