Two Cowboys in Her Crosshairs [Hellfire Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (9 page)

Fear slithered through her expression. “I think so.”

“You
think
? You’re not sure?”

“No. That’s part of why I’m here. I need more answers.” Her chin quivered in his fingers, and she clasped his arm. “I need to know why Shag was killed. I need to know what connection that statue has to our unit and the ambush. I’m positive they’re connected, but I just don’t know
how
.”

The agony in her expression tore at his heart.

Jake framed her face and stroked the silken curve of her cheek. She trembled, and her lips parted. Jake’s gaze dropped to her full mouth and the urge to taste her was as strong as the scent of wisteria in the spring air.

He searched her eyes and found them wide and cautious.

He lowered his head. She didn’t stop him.

She didn’t utter a word of denial.

“Olivia,” he whispered, and his mouth covered hers.

A blinding sense of familiarity and absolute rightness slammed into him. She tasted as sweet as Texas Tea, and her lips were softer than the down on a baby chick. She moved beneath him, pressing her mouth to his. She mewled in demand, and her fingers inched up over his neck and speared into his hair. She pressed down and opened her mouth.

Jake couldn’t have resisted her invitation if an angry bull charged him. With long, slow strokes, he traced the outer edge of her mouth then dipped inside. Her tongue met his in a tangle of heat and moisture that sent his blood pressure reeling and his cock throbbing.

He wanted to plunge deep inside her body as he had the last night they’d been together. He needed to feel her warmth and life wrapped around him. Wanted to prove to both of them he was still alive.

Jake pulled his mouth away with a harsh, rasping gasp of air.

“Jake?” she whispered and caressed his face.

He pulled back, her touch burning him.

She let her hand drop to her side and stepped away. Her arms wrapped around her midriff, and she stared at the truck. “They were watching,” she said. Her tone was flat and unemotional.

He tried to pull himself together and found it nearly impossible. The primal urge to haul her back into his arms was strong.

But he couldn’t do that.

They had too much history and too many secrets.

The sheriff lifted his hand in a jaunty salute and gunned the engine as Hudson stepped back.

“Hud’ll give you a ration of shit if you let him,” Jake said.

She nodded, and when she looked at him again, her face was expressionless. “He would have fit right in.”

Jake nodded. “Yeah, he would have. Except he’s a damned pacifist. If not for the whole cowboy angle, you would think he’s a hippie.”

She didn’t smile, but he thought he saw a softening in her features. He extended his hand, thought better of touching her and dropped it back to his side. “I was out of line,” he said. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

Olivia’s face was more relaxed now. “Someday, you’ll have to explain why not.”

Someday.

Hudson’s boots rang on the bottom step as he ambled onto the porch with a grin as wide as the Brazos River. “Having fun, kids?”

Jake shoved him. “Shut up.”

Hudson looked at Olivia and his eyes tightened just a fraction. “Tag enjoyed the show. Said it was like old times. Didn’t realize you two were that close.”

Her skin flushed deep, rosy red like wine from a Hill Country vineyard. “Knock it off, Hudson, you’re embarrassing her.”

“Sorry, ma’am,” he drawled. “That was not my intent.”

She laughed, and her blush faded. “I’m afraid my eyes are already brown, cowboy, so no use throwing that bullshit around for my benefit.”

Hudson grinned widely. “You’ve got spunk. I like that.”

“Are you kidding me?” Olivia said. “If I didn’t hold my own with these guys, I would have been an afternoon snack.”

Hudson leered playfully and slung his arm around her shoulders. He snuggled her to his chest. “I’d love to nibble on you, darlin’. You just say the word, and I’ll bring the chocolate sauce.”

All sorts of erotic thoughts raced through Jake’s mind. Each one starred a naked and wanting Olivia between them. He felt pole-axed and damned aroused. Now was not the time for either sensation. “Enough,” Jake snapped.

They stared at him. Hudson eyed him with speculation, and Olivia’s face held censure.

He drew a calming breath. “Did you get the statue?”

“No,” she said. “Tag showed up before I made it to my car.” She headed for her vehicle, opened the back door, and leaned inside.

Hudson whistled softly. “Damn, she’s got a great ass.”

Jake shoved him, but he didn’t hide a grin. “Yeah, she does.”

The SUV door thudded shut, and she loped back to the porch and took the porch stairs at a rapid clip.

“Let’s go inside,” she said, looking around. Her eyes were once more calculating. “It sounds like the local grapevine is too good. Don’t want news of this ending up in the evening paper.”

Hudson opened the door and ushered them inside. He winked as he cut in front of Jake. “We don’t have an evening paper. Just Earl’s weekly rag that details all sorts of fun and insipid details of Freedom’s fine citizens.”

Jake locked the door and followed them into the dining room. He leaned against the doorjamb and watched Olivia open the shoe box and lift out a bundle. Hudson pulled out a wooden chair and dropped down.

Paper crackled in the silence as she unwrapped the statue. She set four large pieces on the table and looked at him. “This is what Shag was killed for. The question is, why?”

Hudson leaned forward and peered at it from all sides then sat back and tipped his chair on two legs. “It’s broken. Doesn’t look like anything special to me.”

Acid coated the back of Jake’s throat. He moved toward the table and stopped a foot shy.

The statue pieces sat innocuously where she’d set them. The thing was covered in gritty sand and looked like it’d been made years ago.

Perhaps even a thousand years ago.

Olivia looked at him. “Jake?”

He scrubbed a palm over his face and blew out a sharp breath. “You don’t know where he got it?”

“No.”

She tipped her head. “But you do, don’t you?”

Jake avoided her searing gaze. “Not exactly.”

Hudson’s chair thumped to the floor. “Then what, exactly?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “It looks familiar, but I’m just not positive. Could be because it’s trashed.” He looked at her. “I don’t suppose you’d leave it here and let me do some research on it?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”

Hudson’s big hand covered hers. “You can trust him, Olivia. He might be an ass at times, but no matter what, Jake can always be counted on.”

Jake crossed his arms and waited for her answer.

The grandfather clock ticked loudly in the silence.

“All right. I’ll leave it overnight. Where do you think you know it from?”

Jake shook his head. He wasn’t quite ready to spill the beans on a secret that had haunted him for three years.

A secret that may have cost his men their lives.

Hudson followed Olivia back into town and wondered at the strained relationship she had with Jake. She pulled into the motel and skirted around to the back. He pulled into a space next to her and cranked down the window of his beat-up green truck. “You hungry?” He was anxious to have some time alone with her and pick her brain.

After the first week he’d returned home, Jake refused to talk about what happened in Afghanistan. Hudson was hoping this dark-haired, sloe-eyed beauty would offer up some tidbits.

His friend had come back from the war a changed, almost-broken man.

And every year on the anniversary of that last day in Afghanistan, Jake fell a little deeper into the bottle. Spent a lot more time alone and refused to talk to anyone.

Even him.

Olivia locked her car and strolled over. Her gait was long and loose-limbed like a young gazelle.

She gripped the side mirror. “We just ate. Besides, I was just going to order room service later.”

Hudson rolled his eyes. “Good Lord, darlin’, don’t do that. Whitcombe will send you stale crackers with moldy cheese and call it Roquefort. He’ll charge you an assload for it, too.”

She smiled and looked younger than she had all day. “What if I like Roquefort?”

He pretended to shudder. “Come on over to the Tin Star.” Hudson reached out and placed his hand over hers. “We can get some dessert and coffee and bullshit over stuff.” And by stuff, he meant talk about Jake.

She didn’t move her hand away as she thought about it.

Hudson tried not to let the continued contact go to his head—either of them—but it was hard to do. The softness of her skin beneath his palm was alluring and made his very active imagination conjure up just how soft the rest of her would be.

“All right, thanks.” She looked down. “But I’d like to change first. I get the feeling I’d be a bit overdressed.”

Hudson waggled his brows. “I’ll be happy to come inside and watch you change.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You’re a horrible flirt.”

“Nah,” he protested. “I’m a great flirt. Ask anyone.”

Olivia chuckled again and gave him a sultry smile that made his jeans tent fast and hard. Hudson sucked in a breath as the air shimmered. Somehow, he didn’t think the sudden wave was from the midday May air.

“I’m real fast at getting out of my clothes, Hudson. I won’t be long.” She winked and spun around.

He watched her, mouth hanging open like a big-mouth bass. She fished her key from her pocket, shoved it in the lock, and pushed the door open. She gave him a little wave as she stepped inside.

Hudson rolled the window back up, cranked the AC knob over to full blast, and pointed the vents at his crotch.

Minutes later he was still hard as a rock. All that time in the truck and he’d spent it fantasizing about what she’d look like when she came back out.

He was not prepared for the vision she presented, and his dick kicked back into high gear. Hudson gritted his teeth, pushed open the door, and jumped down to the pavement.

Just as she reached the curb, he caught her arm and gently led her to the passenger side.

“You look beautiful,” he said as he handed her up.

She gave him a shy smile. “Thanks. I don’t know what possessed me to bring this.”

“This” was a lightweight, red cotton sundress that hugged her body in all the right places. The tight banded top cupped her breasts the way he wanted to and pushed them upward. The banding continued down her slender stomach and flared into a wide skirt that stopped just above her knees. She’d buckled on red, strappy heels that made her calves look as tight as a frog’s ass.

Hudson shuddered as clambered back into the truck. He fumbled with his seat belt until it finally clicked into place. Throwing the gear into reverse, he slung his arm over the bench seat and grazed the nape of her neck.

He froze.

Then he softly curled his fingers up to tug on a dangling tendril of black hair.

She cleared her throat as she bent her head away.

Hudson pulled his hand back slightly and backed out of the parking space.

He pointed them toward the heart of Freedom and scrambled for something to say. His mind was blank. This never happened.

“Are you related to Jake?”

The mention of his best friend spurred him back to reality and Hudson relaxed. “No,” he said. “But if I could have chosen a brother, it would be him. We grew up together.”

“Here?” She waved at the passing scenery.

Rolling green hills bordered one side of the road while miles of barbed-wire fencing bracketed the other. “No,” he said. “We grew up in the suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth.”

“How old were you when you met?”

Hudson squinted into the bright sunlight and fumbled for his sunglasses. He cursed when he dropped them and started to bend over.

The truck swerved on the road.

“I’ll get them,” she yelled.

Before he could protest, her head was near his knee and the soft scent of jasmine tickled his nose. Her hand settled on his leg, and he knew it was for balance, but that didn’t stop his cock from surging high and tight.

“Here,” she said.

He took the sunglasses, shook out a leg, and slid them over his eyes. “Thanks,” he rasped. “I thought you didn’t wear perfume.”

He felt her start then pull her hand away. His leg tingled where she’d touched him.

“I don’t when I’m on business,” she said.

He slanted a shaded look at her. “Why not? Marines don’t allow it?”

Sadness tipped her mouth down. “They don’t have a regulation against it,” she said softly.

Hudson waited, but she didn’t go on.

“Well, why not then?”