Illicit acollection, p.74
Illicit: A Contemporary Romance Collection, page 74
She spat it out, wincing as it fell from her lips. Deep red grooves marked either cheek. Alec tamped down the rage and instead focused on his job.
“Isobel’s up there,” Cynthia said, her voice hoarse. Alec wasn’t sure if that was from the trail dust or from trying to cry out.
He made a signal to Kent to get her some water. The older man brought over a canteen. Cynthia drank, then cleared her throat. She sipped again.
“And another rider. I don’t know who, just that Martin started cussing a blue streak and tried to follow the person. I think…are there any girls out here on the ranch? I saw a ponytail.”
Alec’s stomach flipped, but Boone was the one to answer.
“Portia,” he said. “Which way?”
Cynthia tilted her chin to the left. “The youngest Petras girl?” At Alec’s nod, she muttered a familiar prayer. Her eyes filled with tears, but she managed to tell them, “She maneuvered the horse into a canyon. Martin was following her. Then, there were gunshots and he…”
Cynthia’s shoulders shook.
“We know,” he said, trying to keep his tone soothing.
Cynthia shook her head, clawing at Alec’s shirt in agitation. One of her nails snagged and broke.
“You don’t get it!” she cried. She winced, a small tricked of blood forming in the corner of her lip.
“Okay,” Alec said, still trying to keep calm for his mom.
“Martin’s planning to blow the top off this peak.”
“What?” all three men exclaimed.
Cynthia’s chin trembled and she swiped at her eyes, angry that the tears continued to course down her cheeks. Adrenaline crash, Alec decided. Unfortunately, his mother had to ride it out. But he did take her hand, even though his muscles screamed for him to jump up and race after Izzy and Portia.
This moment, his mother needed him. Next? Well, he’d have to go soon. Very soon.
“He said…he said he wasn’t going back. I think he meant to prison. He’s not going back to prison, and I guess he’s holding a grudge against Steve, or maybe your father told him to…I don’t know, but he’d wired the top of the ridge and planned to blow it apart. Portia’s not safe up there.”
“Start at the beginning,” Boone said, squatting down in front of her.
Alec remembered that he’d worked in intelligence before his team was ambushed in a village in the outer reaches of Afghanistan.
“Walk us through each detail,” Boone said.
“Your father thinks there’s oil here, on the ranch.” Cynthia inhaled, the marks on her cheeks still as dark and angry. “He wants to buy the rights. That’s why he sent Martin.”
“To find oil?”
Cynthia nodded, her chin trembling as tears slid down her cheeks. “And to spy on Steve, to catch him with a lover.” She swiped at her eyes. “To ruin Steve’s reputation.”
Alec continued his soothing motion, but his feet began to twitch. Izzy. Izzy. His heart thumped out her name.
“He c-c-caught me on the way out of town. Martin. He had a gun.” She took in a deep breath, let it trickle out. “He took over my car, made me ride with him to the mountain. He wanted a bigger share of the payout. He said he’d use me as leverage or use me. Either worked for him.”
“Mom,” Alec asked. “He didn’t…?”
She was already shaking her head. “He didn’t rape me. No. He wanted.” She swallowed hard. “He wants Isobel.”
Alec’s hand fisted. Izzy. He needed to get to her. Now.
“Shhh.” Alec forced his hand open and continued to rub her back. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”
“You have to find Portia, Alec. She’s alone. Could be hurt. Please. Please.” His mother buried her face in her hands. “I can’t have your father’s actions cause any child’s hurt. Or Isobel’s either. She…she doesn’t deserve any of what’s happening.”
“We’ll find them both, Mom.”
Alec dipped his head toward Boone and Kent, lifting his eyes toward where they’d heard Isobel’s scream. Every nerve in his body urged him to run after her.
“I’ll stay with her,” Boone said quietly.
When Cynthia started to protest, Boone raised his hand. “I’ll ride with you down the mountain, okay?”
Cynthia sucked in a breath and stood tall. “Okay.”
Boone turned to Alec. “You need to find Isobel, stat. And Kent’s the one with explosive experience. He can stop the big blow. Be careful, man.”
Alec clutched his friend’s forearm, his chest aching with all he needed to say. He managed to get out a brief, “Thanks.” He dropped a soft kiss on the top of his mother’s head and then turned up the mountain, setting a brisk pace.
They hadn’t traveled more than a third of a mile when the thudding of horse hooves had them separating and blending back into the trees. Portia came into view, face streaked with tears and grime, eyes red.
Alec stepped forward and Portia squealed, raising a club-like tree branch in her left hand. At least the kid planned to fight back. That show of spunk warmed Alec’s heart.
Recognizing Alec, Portia lowered the branch as her lip began to quiver.
“Alec,” she choked. “Martin’s up there. He…he…he’s got someone on his horse. I think that person’s dead.”
Alec caught the horse’s bridle, but dropped it when Portia flung herself into his arms.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her as sobs caused her body to quake. She normally wore her hair in a ponytail, but it had fallen loose, full of chunks of pine needles and sap.
“It’s okay. That was my mom. She’s safe. Don’t worry, Portia. It’s okay.”
“Izzy and my mom told me to wait at the big house, but I didn’t listen,” Portia sobbed. “I didn’t…he’s dangerous.”
Alec didn’t want to leave Portia because he knew the teenager trusted him the most, but he also had to continue to search for Isobel, make sure she was safe.
Kent touched Portia’s back. “What if I ride with you, Portia? We can go together. Down the mountain. We’ll catch up to Boone and Mrs. Monson.
Kent met Alec’s eyes and then darted his up the hill as if to say you gotta go now.
“What about the big bang?” Alec asked.
“Getting Miss Isobel off this peak comes first,” Kent said. His mouth fell into a grim line.
“Izzy’s up there?” Portia asked, her voice rising with fear. “Go get her, Alec. Please.”
“I will,” Alec promised. He sucked in a breath. “What do I do?” he asked Kent.
Kent’s eyes narrowed. “Run like hell.”
Terrible advice. Also the best chance Alec had to get Izzy away from Martin and off the ridge. He nodded.
“Come on, Portia,” Kent said. “You okay to get back on the horse? It’s the fastest way down.”
Portia stuttered out her assent, and Kent helped her back into the saddle. He sat behind the girl and gathered her slight, shivering body in his arms before grasping the reins.
“I got you, Portia. Boone and I will keep you and Mrs. Monson safe.”
He dipped his head toward Alec before clicking his tongue at his shared mount. The horse trotted back down the trail.
Alec continued up the trail alone. Just as he’d been that day in Afghanistan while his friends died. His heart pounded and his palms dripped sweat. His T-shirt stuck to his slick skin as he tried to catch his breath.
He was going to die on this mountain. He should have died on that one.
The memories, the screams, the sound of bullets, the explosion… Spiraling down, falling from the sky… The memories slammed into him. Alec stumbled.
He blinked. He rose back to his feet. Isobel.
Finding her—that was his mission. He’d flown his chopper here, landed it without hostile fire. He’d found two of the three women who needed help to get off the mountain. He could finish his operation. He’d be successful. He would.
He moved forward, ignoring the burn in his legs and lungs.
The explosion knocked him off his feet.
His body slammed into the dirt as debris rained down. Chunks of rock hit the ground. Alec rolled off the path and into the dubious safety of the trees, hands flying to the back of his neck to protect the vulnerable flesh before his mind yanked him back.
Back to those last moments when Alec failed his buddies.
He gasped as the rocket slammed into his chopper, reliving those desperate moments as he tried to maintain control, fought to aim the falling, burning hunk of metal toward the enemy line.
He’d crashed the chopper right in their midst and had to kick out the door and come up, gun ready.
Alec had killed two of the men who hadn’t scattered when his chopper blew. Then, he dragged his comrades further from the crash site. He used the lieutenant’s radio to call for back up. Not like the lieutenant cared with his body riddled with bullet holes.
Not as if Alec expected to make it out alive.
Gasping, lifting his head, he squinted into the debris gliding in front of his face, here in Utah.
Alec had taken out the insurgents.
He’d saved Craig’s and Pete’s life. Yes, they’d lost way too many men, but Alec acknowledged with grim acceptance that he’d been lucky—damn lucky—to get out of that location alive. He sucked in much-needed air and a part of him that had seemed to die with his buddies flickered to life.
He’d helped people then as he’d helped Portia and his mother today.
He had to find Izzy. Now.
25
Isobel
The explosion made Isobel topple onto Martin, where he lay in the dirt, gasping and cursing.
“You stupid bitch,” he groaned. “You hit the detonator when you shot me.”
“It didn’t go off right away,” Isobel said, managing to headbutt him in his sternum. She sat back on her heels, not wanting to be within feet of him, let alone covered in his blood.
“Broke the timer on it,” Martin gurgled. “I’m not going back. Not going back.”
Blood continued to seep from the wound on his chest. Isobel wouldn’t be able to staunch the flow.
“Gonna die here. Like I planned, even if you did botch it.”
“What are you talking about?” she gasped.
“I won’t go back to prison.” He shuddered and groaned low.
Because of his weakened state, she dared raise her gaze, only to gape as chunks of rock began to rain down on them.
Isobel squeaked as a large rock plummeted toward them. Martin shoved her back with surprising strength. Isobel cried out, but Martin disappeared under the boulder. Her stomach heaved, but she backpedaled from the falling debris, falling on her butt before darting into the trees.
Thee moy. Martin had shoved her out of the way.
Isobel didn’t know what to do. She stood, frozen, as more large chunks of what had been the ridge peak slammed into the mountain around her, gouging at the once-pristine earth.
“Izzy!"
She froze, terror gripping her muscles. Martin. But, no, he was dead. His legs stuck out from under the large boulder like a terrible reenactment of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the East.
Someone called her name again, panic lacing the words. Alec.
“Here!” she called back. Her throat didn’t work right. She cleared it and tried again. “Here!”
At least that seemed louder.
Moments later, Alec crushed her to his chest. She ignored her chattering teeth and held on to him, her grip tighter than an octopus’s.
“Thank God you’re safe.”
Alec held her tighter, hands running up and down her back, her arms. “You’re not hurt, right? You’re covered in blood. You need to tell me where it hurts.”
“I’m fine,” Isobel said. Her voice was almost even. She had no idea how she’d pulled that off. “Portia’s missing,” she managed to gasp. “And Steve’s hurt. So is Jamie.”
Alec
* * *
He let Izzy ramble as he lured her further down the ridge and deeper into the woods, hoping to deflect some of the rocks. Her cheeks were blotchy with tears, eyes black with shock or worry but she kept pace with him. Once they’d jogged for a while and no more rocks continued to fall, Alec stopped and hugged her.
“Portia’s safe, Izzy. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.” He kept up his litany of soft words while rocking her. She calmed. She huffed out a breath and wiped her eyes.
“You scared me,” he murmured into her hair.
“I…”
Alec wrenched Izzy into his embrace, resting his cheek on the crown of her head.
“I thought I wouldn’t see you again, Iz. When Boone told me you rode up here, alone.” Alec closed his eyes and tightened his arm around Izzy’s waist.
“I couldn’t let Portia get hurt,” she whispered.
But he understood the strength under that willing show of vulnerability. Much as she’d asked him to trust her with his fears, Izzy let him past her defenses.
“How did you get here?” she asked.
“Flew in on the county’s helo.”
Her eyes widened. “You flew it?”
He nodded.
She cupped his cheeks, her eyes delving deep into his. “How do you feel?”
He allowed a small smile. “Great. Especially now that I know you’re okay.”
He dropped a soft kiss to her lips.
She drew back, studying him. “Did the ride cause you to relapse into the memories? I don’t want you to take on tasks that make you uncomfortable, Alec.”
“I’m good, Iz. Promise. It was…” Alec searched for the word. “The whole day has been…cathartic,” he said. He nodded. Yes, that was correct.
He’d have to process what happened. And that would take time and therapy. He’d need to go back over what he remembered from that last flight in Afghanistan, too. And he would—maybe with Izzy, but definitely with Steve. He frowned, hoping the older man made it off the mountain and healed from his wounds.
“I want to see my sister,” Izzy whispered. “And we have to…” She shuddered. “We have to make sure Bashir got to Steve and Jamie.”
Alec brushed a kiss to her forehead, and Izzy shut her eyes. She inhaled, and he wondered if she was doing what he was: soaking in her warmth and scent and thanking any and all higher beings she was in his arms.
“We will. But first.” He drew back enough to clasp her cheeks and tilt her face up. “I love you, Isobel Petras. You were right when you said I needed to face my past so I could have a future. And I can do that as long as you’re in it. Because you are my future.”
She smiled even as tears spilled over his thumbs.
“I love you, too, Alec. I…I always have.”
He kissed her once more, long enough for them both to be certain of their feelings. But they still had work to do.
Lots of it.
They found Chico a quarter mile down the ridge trail, eating grass. Alec helped her mount, and the horse handled both their weight with ease as they finished their trek down the mountain. Isobel had arranged a check-point with Kent and Boone via walkie-talkie. Cynthia ran over and hugged Alec, babbling about how worried she’d been when the mountain exploded.
Portia darted out from behind Boone and barreled into her sister’s arms. Izzy scrunched her eyes shut as she hugged Portia.
Alec wanted one of the former soldiers to help him clear the mountain—after he flew the chopper back to town and picked up the sheriff and whoever else needed to survey the scene. He didn’t want to leave Izzy, but he had to.
Alec sauntered over to kiss to the top of Izzy’s head. “Gotta go. I love you.”
She and Portia both looked up at him, though Isobel’s eyes were soft and full of the same emotion. Portia’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open.
“Um,” Portia said. “I hope you said that before, because this is not romantic.”
“Nope,” Alec said. “Right now is real life. The messy, scary real life I lived for years in the army.” He hoped Izzy understood what he was telling her—that he didn’t like to bring up his past because it was messy and ugly and scary. But that he would try to find the beauty in life, moving forward, for them both.
Alec leaned forward, inhaling her precious scent. “I’ll do something romantic later. But right now, will you look after my mom and your sister?”
Isobel nodded, her hair tickling his neck.
Then, she broke his embrace and began the hard work of helping Boone, Kent, Portia, and his mother finish heading down the mountain. He headed back up.
26
Isobel
Bashir and Adrian got to Steve long before Alec and his crew managed to get to that spot on the trail, thank goodness. By the time they arrived at the bottom of the peak, the horses were tired. Other residents loaded the horses into trailers to take back to the stables.
“How’s Steve?” Isobel asked her father. He held Portia tight to his side on the long bench at the table. Portia, while pale, was clean and without any physical sign of damage.
“Bashir stitched his side, which had a deep gash from the bullet. Steve lost a lot of blood.”
Isobel nodded, a frown building between her brows.
“An ambulance met us at the ridge road and took him to the local hospital. Both he and Jamie are there.”
“Jamie’s okay?” Alec asked.
Adrian nodded. “He will be, once his prosthetic is repaired or replaced.”
The rest of the crew needed hot showers and time to heal from their bruises. After bathing and changing, they gathered, as people do, in the kitchen of the main house where Catarina served them all tea and coffee and an array of foods from fig leaf-wrapped goat cheese to roasted lamb gyros.
Alec walked in after everyone else had cleared their places. Alec fell into a seat next to Isobel and began loading up a plate. He dove into the meal, eating half of it before he joined the conversation.
