“Ben and his wife are throwing a birthday party for one of her sisters down on the beach later. He said people would probably show up early to help with the cooking and to get things ready.”
Lily pulled her lower lip through her teeth. “Does he mind us being here?”
“Not at all,” he said, not looking at her as he pulled his key from the ignition. “He invited us to the party, but I told him I thought it would be best if you kept a low profile for the moment.”
“Thanks,” she whispered, thinking the last thing she could probably handle right now was a party with a bunch of strangers.
They climbed out of the Jeep and made their way through the parked cars, then around the side of the house on the right, until they’d reached the crowded back patio. Standing on the fringes of the bustling group, Ryder pointed to a muscular, dark-haired guy who was sinfully good-looking. “The tall guy over there is Ben.”
“That’s who you’re worried is going to play matchmaker?” she asked, barely able to hold in her laughter as she studied the man who was stringing a strand of small white lights across the opposite end of the patio. He was gorgeous, but looked tough as hell. “Honestly, Scott.”
When she sent him a look that said she thought he was crazy, he smirked. “You want to feel my palm on your ass again?”
She was surprised he’d mentioned it, and more than a little surprised at how turned on she was by the idea. Heat sizzled through her as she murmured, “I might.”
“Christ.” He blew out a soft breath, and there was a crooked tilt to his mouth as he shook his head. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”
“You certainly did,” she said with a soft laugh, thinking he might actually be loosening up a little. Looking back at the sheriff, she asked, “Is it hard for you to take orders from a guy who isn’t military?” On the drive over, he’d explained Ben Hudson’s background as a Miami homicide detective, before the lawman had relocated to Moss Beach and taken on the role of county sheriff.
“Not at all,” he murmured, nodding to the people who either smiled at them or gave them a little wave. They were definitely getting some curious looks, but everyone seemed friendly and welcoming. “Ben knows what he’s doing,” he added. “That’s all that matters to me.”
She smiled, thinking Ryder had always been that way. For such a badass alpha soldier who had been as lethal with a computer as he’d been with a knife, he’d never been one to play the macho asshole card. He’d taken his orders from her father without ever batting an eye, and he’d been loyal to the members of his team. He hadn’t swaggered with attitude like so many of the elite soldiers.
“Hey, Ryder. You gonna introduce me to the lovely lady?”
Ryder mentally cursed as Michael Hudson, Ben’s younger brother, walked toward him and Lily. Ben had obviously asked everyone to give them a bit of space, but Mike either hadn’t gotten the message, or had simply decided to ignore it. Before he could tell the hotshot DEA agent to back off, Lily stuck her hand out and smiled. “Hi. I’m Lily Heller.”
There was a wicked gleam in Mike’s pale green eyes as he shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Lily. I’m Mike Hudson. Ben’s brother.”
Though she’d had a change of clothes in the backpack she’d brought with her, she obviously hadn’t had any makeup to put on. Her face was freshly scrubbed, her skin glowing and healthy, making her look even younger than she was. And incredibly innocent—even though Ryder knew she wasn’t. Not after what had happened that morning. A virgin would have been screaming her head off at having her underwear ripped down and her sweet little ass smacked, instead of moaning and wiggling for more. His right hand flexed at his side, his palm burning with remembered sensation. Her rounded backside had been so smooth and soft. It’d taken every ounce of willpower he possessed not to push his hand lower, between her legs, and palm her hot little cunt. Even more to refrain from rolling her over and shoving her legs out flat at her sides so that he could get a good long look at her tender folds, before lowering his head and going at her like a man who’d been starving for too damn long.
“So how do you know this jackass?” Mike asked, interrupting the dangerous track of his thoughts. Last thing he needed was to get hard in front of all these fucking people. Ben would never let him live it down.
“Mike,” he grunted, that single word holding a wealth of warning. Before Ryder could say anything more, Ben finally came over, slapping his brother on the back.
“Get lost, Mike. They’re here on business.”
Mike’s pale gaze skimmed over the faded bruise on Lily’s jaw. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” he said in a hard voice, before walking away.
Ben shot a warm look toward his wife, Reese, who was standing at one of the tables with her mother, both women busy putting flowers into little vases that’d been tied with ribbons. Then the sheriff turned and headed through a set of French doors, into the house, and Ryder and Lily followed after him. Ryder kept his hand against her lower back as they made their way through the house to Ben’s home office. At the beginning of the summer, it had been a man’s office, nice but rugged with a single desk. Now it sported a slightly smaller, feminine desk on the other side of the room, where Reese worked. This room was hardly the only change in Ben’s life since he’d fallen head-over-ass for the sexy little schoolteacher—but for some reason it made Ryder uncomfortable. He scowled as he looked around, noting the two mugs sitting on the larger desk. One had lipstick on the rim, as if Reese had been cuddled up in her husband’s lap as they’d shared their morning coffee. And then there were the fucking photos on the walls and their desks. Wedding photos. Honeymoon photos. The smiling, laughing couple with their arms wrapped around each other. The looks on their faces happier than he’d ever thought people could be. That it could happen to a tough son of a bitch like Ben threw him. He didn’t like being in this space, where everything screamed couple and commitment and all the things that scared the living shit out of him. And he sure as hell didn’t like being in here with Lily.
“You okay?” Ben asked him. “You look—”
“I’m fine,” he grunted. “Just . . . worried.” He almost flinched when Lily turned her head and gave him a little smile, her eyes flashing with emotions he couldn’t deal with. And didn’t want. What the hell did she know anyway? She was too young. Too trusting. Too fucking everything. He’d have to be an idiot to believe a single word that had come out of her mouth that morning.
Moving away from her, he threw himself into the chair over by the wall, leaving her alone in front of the desk.
Ben frowned, looking between the two of them, before settling his worried gaze on Lily. She was still standing, and he held out his hand. “I’m afraid we didn’t get properly introduced. I’m Ben.”
“Lily,” she said, shaking his hand. “I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with us when you’re so busy.”
He gave her an easy smile. “Not a problem. I’m never too busy for my friends.”
Ryder stiffened, a little surprised by Ben’s words. He hadn’t really ever thought of him as being a friend. They worked together. Period. He didn’t have friends. Or girlfriends. Hell, he was such a reclusive jerk, he probably wouldn’t see his sister if she didn’t make it a point to come down and visit.
Before he could sort out his thoughts, Ben asked Lily to take a seat, propped his hip on the edge of his desk, and caught Ryder’s gaze. “Tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen. But first, I want to know what’s going on.”
Though he’d given Ben a brief overview of the situation over the phone, he hadn’t gone into any specifics. He did that now, explaining about Yuri Radovich, the op he and his fellow team members had carried out against Radovich three years ago that they’d mistakenly thought had resulted in the terrorist’s death, and how Heller and his girlfriend had been killed. Then Ben asked Lily to explain how she’d managed to make it from the Caribbean to Florida, and Ryder listened with interest. His damn head had been so screwed up since last night he hadn’t yet taken the time to ask her that question himself. Her story about paying some guy on a deep-sea fishing boat to smuggle her into the port so that there wouldn’t be any records for Rado to trace gave him chills, considering how easy it would have been for some bastard to hurt her. When she was done, Ben looked at Ryder and asked, “Could Radovich’s hit on Heller and his family be a personal strike against you?”
Lily sat up a little straighter in her chair, her confusion showing in the crease between her delicate brows. “What would an attack against my father have to do with Scott? As far as I know, they never spoke again after he left my father’s unit.”
Ryder shook his head a little, warning Ben off that particular track. He knew exactly what the guy was thinking—that Radovich thought there was a romantic connection between him and Lily and had tried to kill her because of it. No way in hell did he want his boss blurting out a bombshell like that. He’d never be able to convince Lily he wasn’t interested if she suspected he might be lying to her. Idiot woman had decided she wanted a piece of him for some unknown reason, and until he’d dealt with Rado and sent her home, he needed to be careful not to give anything away. Not that he was doing that great a job of it. He’d already had her panties down around her knees once today, and it wasn’t even lunchtime.
Picking up on Ryder’s signal, Ben shrugged Lily’s question off, saying it was nothing, then asked what he could do to help. Ryder rubbed his scar for a moment, knowing Ben probably wasn’t going to like his plan. But he didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. He needed Radovich dealt with as soon as possible, because his control was only going to last so long. Sitting forward in his chair with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped between them, he said, “I’ve talked to Lily, and we both believe that her best chance of survival is to draw Radovich to Moss Beach so that I can deal with him personally. I know Rado will be keeping tabs on the east coast for word about Lily. He’s got guys who know their way around our statewide communication systems even better than we do. I was thinking that if you could put out a statewide alert for a man matching his description in connection with a local investigation, then it should be enough to snag his attention without setting off any red flags with the military, since they still don’t know he’s the one who made the hit. But the second Radovich realizes I’m a deputy in your department, he’s going to know that Lily came to me for help.”
Ben looked unconvinced. “Will he really think we’re stupid enough to put out an alert like that and not expect him to find out about it?”
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks. Even if he figures out it’s a setup, he’s still going to come after her. That’s a given. Regardless of his reasons for wanting to kill her, he isn’t the type of man who can allow a woman to get one over on him and let it go unanswered. He’s too fucking arrogant for it.”
“And you’re both okay with this?” Ben asked, looking from one to the other.
Before she could say anything, Ryder grunted, “Yeah. We talked about it this morning.”
Ben shot her an odd look, as if surprised to hear that she’d agreed to the plan. And Lily, damn her, hardly gave the impression that she was on board with the idea. She looked too pale, the tightness around her mouth a dead giveaway that she was on edge.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Ben said, “It’s a hell of a risk, luring an international terrorist to our town, Ryder.”
“I know. But I’ll deal with the bastard when he shows. I don’t expect the department to take this on.”
“Christ,” Ben muttered with a scowl. “No one’s going to stand by and let you handle this on your own. But drawing him to your home isn’t going to play out well if something goes wrong. I don’t want you having to hit the road in order to fall off his radar and end up losing my best deputy.”
“Nothing’s going to go wrong. I made the mistake of leaving that asshole to die once. I won’t do it again. This time I’m making sure he’s in pieces before I walk away.”
If Ben thought that was a bloodthirsty plan, he didn’t show it. He simply asked, “And then what?”
Ryder was careful not to look in her direction. “Then I’ll go back to work at the station and Lily can get back to her life in Virginia.”
Ben sighed, cutting an almost sympathetic glance at Lily. Ryder didn’t know what kind of expression she was wearing now, since he refused to look at her, but judging by the look on Ben’s face it wasn’t good. His boss looked like there was a lot he wanted to say, but knew better than to even try, and Ryder was grateful for his silence. He knew the next time he and Ben were alone he’d probably be getting an earful about God only knew what. But at least the guy was keeping his opinions to himself for the moment. The sheriff’s only question was, “You going to stay in the county’s safe house?”