Hunted (10 page)

“She okay?” Tuck asked Clay as they reached him and Zoe.

“Yeah. Let’s get her the hell outta here.” She’d had a helluva night already.

Tuck didn’t answer, simply propelled their medic out of the bar and onto the sidewalk with a hand flattened between his shoulder blades. Outside, Schroder wrenched away from him and gave the hem of his T-shirt an angry tug as he glared at their team leader. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“Never said it was, but you’re drunk and that was gonna get ugly in a hurry.”

Apparently appeased by the lack of blame, Schroder turned his attention to Zoe. “Sorry about that.” Clay knew the instant he noticed the red mark on her cheek. Schroder’s expression tightened. “You all right?” His eyes zeroed in on the mark and he took a step toward her, his hand lifting toward her face as though he was going to touch her.

Something in Clay bristled at the idea of anyone else touching her right now. He wrapped a proprietary arm around her shoulders and brought her in tight to his side, silently warning Schroder not to try it.

“I’m fine,” she said, but to Clay’s surprise, pressed closer to him. Automatically he tightened his hold on her. He couldn’t help but notice the way she fit against him so perfectly, warm and soft in all the right places.

Schroder looked at them both, blinked once, and stepped back in clear acknowledgement of Clay’s unspoken claim.

Zoe sighed. “I’d like to get home now, though. Had a long and…eventful day.”

“Sure,” Tuck said, his gaze shooting from her to Clay’s hand wrapped around her right shoulder, then up to his face. Tuck held his stare for a few heartbeats, a silent warning there as his eyes narrowed slightly.
You hurt my cousin, I’ll kill you.

Clay kept Zoe right where she was and met that stare head-on, acknowledging and accepting his actions. He knew he was being territorial and over-protective but he didn’t care. On top of already being concerned about what she’d landed herself in with her volunteer work, seeing Zoe knocked to the floor had triggered something primal inside him. He didn’t want to examine it too closely, he just knew that no one else was touching her or offering her comfort when she had him here.

Tuck pushed out a breath and headed over to where Evers was still talking with Phillips and Wallace. They were laughing at something one of them had said, but Evers’s eyes widened when he took in their grim expressions and the mark on Zoe’s face.

“Whoa,” he said, bending to put his mostly finished to-go cup of beer on the ground, then rose. “Did I miss some fun in there?”

“Yeah,
fun
,” Schroder muttered, scowling as he crossed his arms.

Evers looked at Tuck. “What the hell happened?”

“Just some assholes trying to start some shit,” Tuck said with a careless wave of his hand.

Evers’s gaze shifted to behind them. “That them?”

Tuck swung around, grunted. “Yeah.”

“They look pretty pissed off. Think they’re gonna follow you?”

“If they’re stupid, maybe.”

Clay wanted to get Zoe out of here and back home. He didn’t think those guys would try anything, but you never knew and they could be carrying knives or guns. “We’ll keep an eye out.”

“We’re heading back to Biloxi. You coming with us or staying here?” Tuck asked Evers.

“Wallace volunteered to bunk with Phillips and give us his room at the hotel for the night so I can meet up with some of the guys tomorrow. You guys are welcome to crash with me if you want, save yourselves the drive back to Biloxi,” Evers said.

“Or y’all could stay with me,” Zoe offered. “I’ve got a couch and a king-size bed, so I can fit at least three of you at my place if I take the daybed out on the patio.”

“You’re not sleeping on your patio,” Clay said, an edge to his tone.

“Thanks, but I can’t stay anyway, I’ve got a meeting in Biloxi first thing,” Tuck said. He looked at Schroder. “What about you?”

“I’ll stay with Evers. Bed sounds a lot better right now than a ninety minute drive.”

“Fine. Bauer and I’ll walk Zoe home. I’ll text y’all in the morning, let you know what the plan is.”

“Sounds good,” Evers answered. His eyes cut behind them again. “They’re still there, but just glaring. You guys watch your backs.”

“Will do,” Tuck said, though he didn’t seem too worried about the possibility of a continuation of the fight.

They split up, the others heading down St. Phillip to go back to their hotel, and Clay and Tuck heading back up Bourbon with Zoe. She stayed in the circle of his arm as they walked, making all of Clay’s protective instincts flare as they moved down the crowded sidewalk. She didn’t seem to notice all the men checking her out as she passed by, but she was too quiet and he had a feeling everything that had happened tonight had rattled her more than she let on.

A block up the street, a group of young twenty-somethings spilled out of another bar in front of them. The lead guy stumbled toward them, lurched to a stop three steps away and Clay jerked Zoe behind him just as the guy bent over and started puking all over the sidewalk.

Clay sidestepped, keeping Zoe on his left side this time, away from the mess. Clay shook his head. “I hate people,” he muttered under his breath.

Zoe made a strangled sound and Clay glanced down to see her fighting a laugh. “Not
all
people,” she pressed, poking him in the ribs with a black-painted fingernail.

One side of his mouth turned upward. “No. Not all.” What he felt for her was pretty much the opposite, actually. Would’ve been a helluva lot easier if it wasn’t.

By the time they reached her place she looked tired, and the mark on her cheek had taken on a faint bluish tinge that meant she was going to wake up to a lovely bruise there in the morning. She pulled the bicycle chain lock free of her gate. “You guys coming up for a while?”

“We gotta hit the road, hon,” Tuck said.

Her hand froze around the top of the gate. “Oh. Okay.” Clay didn’t miss the disappointment in her voice, and when her big, golden eyes flashed from her cousin to him, it felt like invisible fingers had closed around his heart.

She didn’t want to be alone. But she wasn’t going to say it. And Clay could tell she also wanted him to be the one to stay.

“I can stay,” he heard himself say. In the split second of silence that followed he was aware of both of them gawking at him, but he only cared what Zoe thought about his announcement and when she smiled in relief he knew he’d made the right call. “I don’t have any meetings or anything in the morning and I’m free tomorrow anyhow.” He could feel Tuck’s eyes boring into him as he spoke, and ignored him.

“I’m glad,” Zoe said, then asked her cousin, “Will you be coming back tomorrow, then?”

Clay glanced over in time to catch Tuck’s subtle glare, saw his jaw flex before he looked at Zoe and softened his expression. “Sure. Soon as I can,” he added, shooting another hard look at Clay. “Can I talk to you for a second, Zo?”

She hesitated, then dispersed the gathering tension with a bright, “Sure.” She looked up at Clay. “Go on in. I’ll just be a sec.” She swung the gate open for him and stepped out of view.

Clay knew exactly what Tuck was about to say, and even though it pissed him off somewhat, he understood. As he walked through the entryway and into the courtyard alone, he was suddenly hit with the enormity of what he’d just done. He’d just agreed to spend the night alone at her place, with no one else around until at least tomorrow afternoon.

No wonder Tuck had glared daggers at him.

The thought of being alone with her for that long simultaneously thrilled and terrified him. He wanted Zoe, badly, but he no longer trusted his instincts when it came to women. And he’d just all but publicly claimed her.

Tuck, Evers and Schroder had just seen him go all territorial with her, and everyone at that bar, too. Strangely, he didn’t regret it. He couldn’t turn off his protective feelings toward her, and didn’t want to. The only other woman he’d ever reacted this strongly to was Eve.

And look how that turned out for you.

The derisive voice in his head annoyed him. Zoe couldn’t be more different from his ex. He’d learned a lot since then. He wasn’t naïve, he wouldn’t be fooled like that again. And there were none of the red flags with Zoe that had been there with Eve. Tuck and Celida loved Zoe to death, and Clay trusted their judgment, even if he didn’t trust his own.

Except his brain was shouting that he’d be a freaking idiot to pass up the opportunity of going for it with Zoe.

He pushed out a breath and ran a hand over his closely-shorn hair. Tuck was out there warning her off him right now. How the hell he was going to make it through the night without acting on his newly intensified feelings for her, he didn’t know.

Zoe’s stomach buzzed with unease as she followed her cousin a few paces down the street, away from the entrance to her place and out of Clay’s earshot. She was pretty sure she already knew what he was going to say, and wasn’t surprised at the disapproving look on his face when he turned to confront her.

Hands on hips, he stared down at her in the light of the streetlamp behind her. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

“I’m just letting him stay over.” She didn’t want to be alone in her place tonight and she wanted to spend more time with him. Which was plain stupid. His earlier rejection had sounded pretty final and Clay was hard enough to stand by his word no matter how much he wanted her. But she still wasn’t ready to concede defeat.

Tuck’s gaze hardened. “You know what I mean.”

She crossed her arms. “Yeah, and I’m a big girl, so while I appreciate you watching out for me, you don’t need to in this case. Besides, he already turned me down earlier.”

A flare of surprise flashed across his face, but then he frowned. “And now he’s staying the night.”

“He’s not interested in getting me into bed, Tuck. He already made that clear.”

Tuck watched her for a long moment, as though contemplating what he wanted to say next. “He’s a good guy,” he said finally. “He is. But he’s not the same as he used to be. He’s…I dunno. Damaged.”

“Because of his ex.”

“His ex,” he allowed with a nod, “and…other shit that comes with going to war and being in our line of work.”

She nodded. “I understand.” She didn’t need Tuck to explain that Clay was world-weary and distrustful. But there was so much more to him than that, and as a man and Clay’s friend, Tuck would never see what she did.

She suspected Clay’s choice to distance himself emotionally from the rest of the world actually came from a deep-rooted self-doubt. And that he secretly longed for far more than he’d ever let anyone know. His ex and whatever had happened between them had wounded him deeply, in ways he’d never admit to. The experience had shaken him. She understood all that perfectly. To a point. Her divorce had been painful enough and she hadn’t suffered what he had, yet she was willing to risk her heart again.

“Do you?” Tuck studied her. “I love the guy like a brother, Zo, but I’ve known you forever and I know how you are, how hard you’ll keep trying in a relationship when you see good in other people. He’s never going to let you in the way you want him to. I don’t even think he’s capable of it now.”

She tilted her head. “So he’s a lost cause, as far as women are concerned?”

“Right now? Yes. And I don’t want to see you get hurt, least of all by one of my friends. Because he would hurt you, even if he didn’t mean to.”

Wait. “You think he’d actually hurt me? Physically?” She was outraged that Tuck would even infer that.

To her surprise, her cousin’s gaze hardened. “No. Never. And whatever you’ve heard about him on that front is bullshit.”

Zoe relaxed. Nobody had told her what had happened between Clay and his ex, but from certain comments made by Tuck and Celida, she knew something big had gone down. She wanted to know what it was, but this wasn’t the time to ask, and she’d rather hear it from Clay anyhow. “Okay, then, what? You’re worried he’ll love me and leave me?”

“That’s exactly what he’d do, yeah.”

She lowered her head, covering a wince as the words hit home. Tuck knew her better than anyone except maybe Celida. He rarely ever gave his opinion about her personal life and she’d be stupid not to listen to him. He’d always given her sound advice, always been there for her, especially through the decline of her marriage and subsequent divorce. “All right. I hear you.”

Tuck watched her carefully for another moment, then sighed and hauled her into his arms for a hug. “You’re gonna do what you’re gonna do, I know. Just be careful, yeah?”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow?”

“You bet. Celida said to say hi. She’s going to call you, maybe later tonight.”

“Okay.” It’d been a few days since they’d spoken last.

Tuck released her and eased back. A broad smile spread across his face. “I’m gonna ask her to marry me, Zo.”

Zoe gasped, both hands flying to her mouth. She blinked against the sudden sting of tears. “For real?”

He nodded. “Saw a ring in a shop window on Royal Street earlier. I’m gonna buy it tomorrow and pop the question the week I get back to Virginia.”

Oh, damn, now she was crying. She wiped at the tears spilling down her cheeks, smiled up at the man who’d been like her big brother her entire life. “Do you know how you’re gonna do it? It has to be romantic, and you have to get down on your knee when you ask her. She’ll blush like crazy and probably mutter something about how stupid you look, but she’ll love it.”

Tuck grinned. “Yeah, I think she will too.”

“You need any ideas? Want me to brainstorm about some possible locations? In a park, maybe. Or on a boat. Ooh! Take her rock climbing and propose at the top of the mountain—”

He laughed. “I got this, Zo, but thanks.”

Zoe set both hands on top of his broad shoulders and squeezed. “I’m so happy for you. I can’t wait until I get the call.”

“Just don’t blow the surprise when you talk to her next.”

She snorted, feigning insult. “If you didn’t trust me to keep the secret, you never would have said anything.”