Chapter Seven

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“No,” Caroline shouted.

Nash whirled toward her, a horrible thought flying through his mind.

That she’d been hit. That one of the gunman’s bullets had made it through the SUV and into her.

But she hadn’t been hit.

And he saw the reason for her shout. The anger and frustration were in every part of her expression. All of those emotions must have just come pouring out of her, and she’d released it in that ear-piecing yell.

Like Nash, Caroline didn’t want Bodie, or whoever the hell this was, getting away. Nash wanted him stopped and taken into custody. He wanted him to pay for ripping Caroline’s life apart at the seams.

“I’m calling for more backup,” the county deputy yelled. “Nobody go in pursuit. I’ll get a team out here.”

Nash wouldn’t hold out hope that the team would get there in time, especially since the shooter probably had a vehicle stashed nearby and was at the moment already in it and heading to heaven knew where.

Or he could be waiting to gun down anyone who went into the clearing.

Either way, Nash wasn’t going after him, but instead he instructed the person monitoring the drone to keep track of the shooter. If they could see where he was going, they could catch him.

Well, they could do that after Caroline was safe, that is. And all right. It was obvious at the moment that she wasn’t anywhere in that realm of being all right.

“No,” she repeated, but this time it came out more like a sob. “I won’t cry. I. Will. Not. Cry.”

But tears watered her eyes. Tears that crushed his heart, and once again, he wished he could make the asshole pay for putting her through this.

“Go ahead and get her out of here before the fire department jams up the driveway,” Ruby whispered to him. “Slade is only a couple of miles out and will be here soon to follow you for backup.”

Slade. His other brother. And not an asshole killer. Slade was former special ops and one of the best operatives Ruby had. Nash couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather have back him up unless it was his baby brother, Jericho. Yet another operative.

Being a hero ran in the family.

Then again, so did killing.

That was especially true since their father had almost certainly murdered their mother and gotten away with it. Clearly, Bodie had followed in their dear old dad’s footsteps.

“Once you have Caroline safe at your place,” Ruby went on, “Slade can come back here and join the search for Bodie and the shooter if that turns out to be someone else. Sorry to pull your brother away from you after you’re home, but Slade’s one of my best trackers.”

He was indeed. “I want Slade on the hunt,” Nash let her know.

“Good.” Ruby gathered her breath and rubbed the spot where the bullet had hit the Kevlar. “I’m fine,” she insisted, obviously seeing what he’d noticed. “I’ll stay behind and do clean up,” she tacked onto that.

Normally, he wouldn’t have taken her up on an offer like that. Because clean-up was going to be a bear. But Caroline had been through enough, and they could get to his place and regroup.

He got in the SUV, putting the rifle back in the case, and he looked at Caroline. “We’re going to my house about twenty miles from here,” he said. “With Slade following us on the way there. Are you okay with that?”

He wanted to give her a say in this, but the alternative was to go to a safe house. His place was just as safe as any that Ruby could set up for them. And they wouldn’t have to wait for that set up either.

Caroline nodded. “I need to get away from here,” she muttered.

“Understood.” And her mother had obviously understood it as well.

It wasn’t easy, what with the debris covering the driveway, but Nash was able to maneuver his SUV around the other vehicles and responders by driving through Caroline’s flower beds. Yet another kind of destruction to something she’d obviously tended and taken care of. Then again, with the house gone, it was possible she wouldn’t even be coming back here.

“I don’t have any clothes,” she said, maybe latching onto that less serious problem than everything else they were facing.

“Oz, arrange for some clothes, underwear, and toiletries to be brought to my house for Caroline. Arrange for the usual food delivery, too. I just got back from an op,” he added to Caroline, “and I haven’t had time to do groceries.”

Again, that was one of those less serious problems, but he would eventually want her to eat something.

He drove just a few feet away from the others and then stopped, waiting for Slade. They didn’t have to wait long before he spotted Slade’s familiar black van. His brother obviously spotted them, too, and pulled to the side of the road so that Nash could get ahead of him. Nash didn’t waste any time driving away.

And keeping watch.

After all, they had to drive right past those woods where the shooter had been, and it was possible the dickhead was still there, waiting for another chance to fire some bullets. Nash doubted it though. Soon, there’d be cops and investigators scouring those woods, and the shooter, or Bodie, wouldn’t want to be within miles of the place.

But where would Bodie go?

If his goal was to get to Caroline, and Nash was certain that it was, then Bodie could possibly be looking for her. At Nash’s place. Maybe Ruby’s, too. However, it wouldn’t be easy to set fires and stage a bloody scene at either of those two locations because of the security. Bodie would be aware of that, too. He would have heard of Maverick Ops’ reputation with such things.

So, Bodie would have to lure out Caroline or send in someone who could get close enough to her to do the luring. Again, not an easy task since Caroline and he would be on heightened alert.

They drove in silence for a while, passing by all that beautiful scenery he’d passed on the mad rush to get to her. This time though, Nash had a new task. To keep watch for any signs of another attack. Thankfully, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so he kept threading through the backroads toward his house.

“Sorry about that outburst back there,” Caroline muttered, yanking his attention back to her. “And these,” she said, wiping away some tears. “I’m not a boo-hooer, and I’m not about to start now.”

“I think you had a valid reason for a few tears,” he pointed out.

The sound she made let him know she didn’t agree with that. “I thought I was done with tears,” she added, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “I did enough of that after the attack.”

Yeah, he was betting she had. A long, painful recovery, and even though Bodie had been in jail throughout it, that didn’t mean Caroline wouldn’t have been looking in every corner and in every shadow for a killer.

He hated that.

Hated Bodie a billion times over for putting her through a nightmare cycle that would never end. Never. Because even if Bodie was dead and buried, that wouldn’t erase the memories of the attack that had nearly left her dead.

“Part of me does want to stand out in the open and shout for Bodie to come after me,” she added a moment later. “That final showdown where I turn the tables on him and kick his ass.” Caroline paused. “But another part of me is worried I might freeze, that I might slingshot back to him stabbing me. I certainly didn’t do much fighting back that time.”

“I’m sorry,” he said because he didn’t know what else to say. “If I could undo all of that, I would.”

“Same,” she was quick to say. “FYI, I never actually dated him. I want you to know that. I had coffee with him at a crowded place on campus, and he came to my dorm room once to chat and bring me takeout. He was all nice and…slick. Slick,” she repeated. “I can see that now. The slickness covering the slimy person beneath. What I don’t understand though is what made him snap like that when I told him I didn’t want to go out with him. I have no idea what made him turn complete asshole stalker and the vicious killer.”

Nash had given that plenty of thought, and he thought he had a theory. “I think it has to do with my mother and Bodie’s relationship with our father.”

He paused. Had to. Because it wasn’t easy recalling all this shit from his past.

“Bodie was very close to my dad,” Nash went on a moment later, and he took a turn to his place. “Ironic, since he was a sick, abusive bastard who beat my mother. Jericho, Slade, and me always tried to protect her. Not Bodie. He was always goading Dad on into keeping her in line when she’d mouth off.”

“Keeping her in line by assaulting her,” Caroline spelled out.

“Exactly. There was a dangerous misogynistic edge to both Bodie and my father. No respect for women. All whores, they’d say. Only good for one thing.”

Yeah, not easy to pick at this scab.

Even now, all these years later, he could hear Bodie and his father snarling out that to his mother and any other female who had the misfortune of crossing paths with them.

“My dad and mom were arguing, and he pushed her into the creek,” Nash explained. “I didn’t see it. Jericho did though. And he tried to have our dad arrested, but no one in the compound where we were raised believed him.”

Caroline stayed quiet for several long moments. “So, your father got away with murder.”

“He did,” Nash verified. “And I think Bodie always figured he could get away with it, too.”

She made a sound of agreement. “Is your dad still alive?”

“I don’t know,” he had to admit. Then, he had to admit something else. “I haven’t looked for him. He left the compound and disappeared.”

Many, many times Nash had considered tracking him down and making him pay for what he’d done. But the truth was Nash wasn’t certain he could confront the asshole without outright killing him. While the SOB deserved to die, Nash wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t like the bastard. So, it was best to let sleeping dogs lie, at least until Nash was certain a visit like that wouldn’t land him in jail.

“I’m sorry,” Caroline said. “I guess we’ve both had our own life shitstorms.”

They had indeed. And it was impossible for him to shove aside that shitstorm now that he’d brought it back to the surface. That was the problem with shitstorms. They kept coming at you. Worse, by having this conversation with Caroline, her nightmarish memories were at the surface, too.

Or so he thought.

“Why didn’t you come back and see me after we danced and hung out at that party?” she asked.

Nash definitely hadn’t been expecting that turn in the conversation, and all he managed was a goofy-sounding “Uh.”

“We had a connection,” Caroline went on. “And don’t say we didn’t.”

No way could he say that. The connection had indeed been there, along with a boatload of lust.

Both were still lingering around, too.

Since Nash didn’t want to confirm that, he went with the obvious reason he hadn’t contacted her. “I stayed away because my brother nearly killed you.”

Caroline huffed. “It was my mother, wasn’t it? That was the real reason.” She stopped, muttered something under her breath that he didn’t catch before she added, “My mother was the reason I didn’t contact you,” she admitted.

Nash shot her a quick glance but didn’t question her on that. He just waited for her to continue. She did after she huffed.

“I didn’t want to cause a rift between you and your boss. Something that I’m doing now,” Caroline tacked onto that. “And I’m sorry. Probably not sorry enough though to put a stop to it.”

Thankfully, Nash didn’t have to respond to that since he took the final turn to his house, and they approached the security gate. He figured though that this conversation wasn’t over. Nope. Caroline apparently wasn’t going to hold back any of her feelings.

For now, anyway.

She might rethink those free flowing confessions once she was inside his place and had had some downtime to process everything that’d just happened. It had been an eventful hour and a half, that was for sure, and maybe it’d be the last of the eventfulness if Slade and the cops managed to catch Bodie.

Nash stopped at the gate and glanced around. Again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Like Caroline’s, his place was off the beaten path as well and had once been a large horse ranch. Nash did keep a few horses, but it hadn’t been the main reason he’d bought it. A much bigger buying point for him had been the potential to keep it secure. In his line of work, that was a necessity since he’d helped to put plenty of people behind bars. Sometimes, those asshole bad people got out and came looking for him.

Asshole bad guys like Bodie.

Except Bodie wasn’t after him but rather Caroline.

That was a reminder that robbed Nash of any potential piece of mind.

“Oz, open the gate,” he instructed, and the metal gates slid open. “There are motion sensors all over the property,” he told her. “And the house itself has sensors on every window and door.”

He hoped that would make her feel safe. Then again, feeling safe might not be possible for her, what with Bodie out there somewhere.

Nash drove toward the one-story stone and wood house and had Oz open the garage doors. Once he had the SUV inside, he gave Slade a wave, and his brother made an immediate turnaround. Heading back to join the hunt for Bodie.

“Wait until the garage door closes before you get out of the SUV,” Nash instructed.

Caroline flinched a little. “Because Bodie could be nearby and watching the place.”

That was always possible, but if so, he’d have to do it with long-range equipment since coming near the house would set off the sensors. Still, it was possible. And Nash thought of those photos of Caroline. The ones that’d been left in the bloodbath scene. Those had been taken long range so it was a skillset that either Bodie or someone he knew had.

“It’s just a precaution to stay out of the line of sight of, well, someone who shouldn’t have eyes on us,” Nash settled for saying. Of course, they’d be taking many more precautions until this ordeal was over.

The moment the garage door touched down, he got out, leading her into the house. It wasn’t a fancy place. Not his style. But he hadn’t gone the bachelor pad mode either. His living room furniture was shades of blue and gray that coordinated with the kitchen colors in the open floorplan.

Emphasis on open.

The living, dining, kitchen, and his office area were all one big space. A well-lit one thanks to the skylights and the floor-to-ceiling windows in the kitchen and the east side of the living room. Those windows gave him amazing views of the pastures. Even now, he could see one of his Palominos grazing near the barn.

The bedrooms were all on the west side of the house. Three of them, each with its own amazing views.

“The windows and the skylights are bullet resistant,” he explained. “And no one can see in.”

Caroline went to the living room window to look out. “I see you like your privacy as much as I do,” she muttered. “No neighbors. Lots of space.”

“It’s quiet,” Nash agreed. “Comes in handy when I need to crash after a tough op.”

“An op like this one,” she said, looking at him from over her shoulder. “I’m the op this time.”

He sighed, went to her. “Caroline, you’re not an op for me.”

She turned, studying his face, and then surprised him by smiling. “I think that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

The comment seemed to make him stupid because he smiled, too. And added, “Then, obviously I haven’t said enough romantic things.”

Yeah, stupid all right.

But it’d felt so good to see her smile. What didn’t feel good was that look of fear still shimmering in her eyes. That look squeezed his gut into a tight ball. And it was that look and not his recent bout of stupid that caused him to pull Caroline into his arms.

Nash didn’t intend to kiss her. Nope. No way. Because it was a line that he shouldn’t cross. He crossed it anyway, though when she lifted her head, locking her gaze with his. That caused the heat to start firing on all cylinders, and despite that mental lecture he’d just given himself, he touched his mouth to hers.

Oh, man.

He was toast.

Burnt to a crisp toast.

Just that mere brush of his mouth over hers sent off alarm bells in his head. Bad alarms. Ones warning him to put his libido in check and move away from her.

That didn’t happen though.

Just the opposite did.

He pressed harder with his mouth, and she made a sound of pleasure that robbed him of any willpower. Robbed him, too, of the last of his logical thoughts. Nash reacted all right. He reacted by sliding his tongue over her bottom lip. Tasting her. Letting that taste do the job it was obviously intended to do.

Make him forget all possible consequences.

Making him forget how to breathe.

Thankfully though, he didn’t need actual breath to go in for more. He pressed his mouth harder against hers, easing his tongue past her lips for a long, deep, slow kiss that fired through him.

His body seemed to think this was a prelude to sex. And that the sex should happen soon.

Thankfully, he was saved by the bell.

Or rather by his phone ringing.

That snapped back some of his control since it was a reminder that a lot of things were going on right now. Things that didn’t involve kissing Caroline or his dick.

He moved away from her, taking out his phone in the same motion, and Nash frowned when he saw Unknown Caller on the screen. It could be spam.

But it could also be Bodie.

And that’s why he answered it.

“McKenna,” the caller snarled.

Not Bodie, but it was a voice he recognized. Leland Harris.

“Mr. Harris,” Nash greeted. “What do you want?” He didn’t use his polite voice either.

“I want my daughter, that’s what,” Leland was quick to growl out. “Where the hell is Jordana?”

Nash sighed. “I have no idea. The last time I saw her, she was with you. Why would you think I’d know where she is?”

“Because she left. She got in her car and just sped away when the cops were talking to me.”

Hell.

Nash figured he’d be getting a call or text about that soon, and sure enough, a message came in from Ruby to let him know that Jordana was missing. Ruby didn’t think the woman could have gotten far, but the county deputy was issuing an APB for her.

“You think Jordana left to meet Bodie?” Nash came out and asked the man.

“No.” He stopped, cursed. “But I guess that’s her plan in a roundabout way.” Leland spewed out even more profanity. “According to the note she left me, Jordana said she was going after Caroline.”