Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Back in the kitchen, we avoid stepping on the lost carrots as he helps me get dressed, though he looks reluctant to put my shirt back on.
“If you keep your distance from the stove, you could go topless,” he suggests.
I just laugh and grab my shirt out of his hands.
When all my clothes are on and Boone’s cleaned the countertop, I inventory the carrots that didn’t escape. “I guess dinner’s going to be late tonight.”
“Absofuckinglutely worth it.” He looks over at me from the sink. “I’d punctuate that with a kiss, but I can’t guarantee I won’t get carried away again.”
When Rhett comes back in, Boone’s standing at the stove stirring butter and flour like nothing ever happened. I’m chopping the carrots I finally finished peeling, and I’m pretty sure my cheeks are still pink.
He looks from my swollen lips to Boone’s bare feet, and lifts one eyebrow. When his eyes come back to me, there’s no jealousy there, only heat, possession, and a satisfaction that makes my belly flutter.
CHAPTER 38
BOONE
My eyes fly open in the dark, and I reach for my rifle before I even fully know where I am.
Cabin. Couch. Living room.
I’m on my feet before the alarm pulses again. North perimeter.
Rhett’s door opens down the hall as Cade’s voice comes through my earpiece. “Movement north. More than one.”
I pull on my plate carrier over my T-shirt and shove my feet into my boots. “West?”
“Checking,” comes Cade’s reply.
Wren’s bedroom door opens, and if any part of me wasn’t wide awake, it is now.
“Safe room,” Rhett and I both tell her at the same time.
Her hair is messy from sleep, but her eyes are wide awake, and she already has her pistol in her hand. There’s fear in her eyes, but not panic, because our girl doesn’t panic easily.
“How many?” Wren asks, looking between us.
The receiver pulses again, then again from a different sensor.
Fuck. “Don’t know,” I tell her. “More than one.”
“Wren.” Rhett says her name like a warning.
“Safe room, sweetheart. Please.”
My request does what Rhett’s order doesn’t. Wren nods once and heads to the reinforced storage room off the hall.
“Lock it,” Rhett barks, and when I hear the deadbolt slide home, I let out a breath.
“North, west, southwest,” Cade reports. “Four men, maybe more.”
Fuck and fuck. This is more than a probe. This is Turner done waiting.
“Mouth, west,” Rhett says. “Smoke, north. I have southeast.”
We move without answering.
The cabin is dark. All the windows are covered except for narrow firing gaps Cade cut and taped during yesterday’s repairs. He walked the property for hours after they came the first time. He thought he’d closed all the gaps, but apparently, Turner’s got men good enough to find something he missed.
I take the kitchen angle, shoulder against the wall, rifle raised toward the west treeline. The woodpile’s out there, between here and the pines. Beyond it, everything’s in shadow.
A shot punches through the window, snapping the glass inward. I drop low as the round buries itself in the cabinet behind me with a hard crack.
I aim where the muzzle flash bloomed and fire one round, then another. A shape jerks behind the woodpile and disappears.
Rhett fires three shots from the front window, and Cade fires from the north side a second later.
Rounds chew through the wall near the kitchen window, and wood splinters against my cheek. A pan hits the floor with a loud metallic crash.
I track movement between two pines and fire again. “West contact,” I report.
“North two,” Cade answers.
“Southeast active,” Rhett says. “Hold positions.”
Another shot hits the front porch.
These aren’t amateurs. They’re using angles and pressing from three directions, forcing us to divide our attention.
Turner’s likely spending serious money to solve his Wren problem, and the thought turns my blood to ice.
“One shifting toward rear wall,” Cade’s voice says.
Rear wall. Safe room side. I leave the kitchen before Rhett can tell me not to.
“Boone,” he snaps.
“Covering Wren.”
He doesn’t argue, and that’s worse than if he had.
I move fast and low down the back hall. The safe room door is shut with no sound from inside. Good girl.
A shadow crosses the narrow utility window at the end of the hall, and I fire before his weapon clears the frame.
The window explodes and the man outside fires back.
Pain sears across my left side, white hot. Shallow, but mean as hell.
I hit the wall with my shoulder, bite down on a curse, and keep the rifle up.
“Update?” Wren’s voice is shaky and near tears, but still clear through the radio.
“I’m good,” I answer as blood runs beneath my shirt.
It’s not enough to stop me. Not even close.
Cade appears inside and sees my hand pressed to my side.
“Graze,” I tell him.
He fires through the broken utility window without blinking, and outside, a man curses.
“They’re pulling back,” Rhett calls.
I push off the wall and head back to the kitchen, because if I’m breathing, I can still be useful.