Red Zone (16 page)

“As much as it pains me to say it, you need to call your partner.” He handed over her cell phone. It had been attached to her belt, and he’d somehow managed to get it off her without her noticing. 

That happens way too much with him. 

Strangely, his reminder of her job, her duty, wasn’t the wake-up call she knew it should have been. She took the offered phone and made the call. Gage didn’t budge. He stayed right there with her, their lower bodies nearly fused together. 

His hands never stopped caressing her the whole time she was on the phone with Hansen. It was utterly and completely distracting. At one point, she lost her train of thought, and she saw his lips tilt up in a smile. She wanted to be annoyed with him, push him away, but for some reason she didn’t. 

The phone call lasted a lot longer than she wanted. By the time she hung up, her eyes were drooping and her limbs felt as if they’d been weighted down. The only thing holding her up was Gage. 

“Finished?” he asked when she pressed the button on her phone and slipped it into her jeans pocket. It would have taken too much coordination to clip it back on her belt. 

“Yes,” she whispered, her eyes drifting closed. She felt him shift his weight, and then she was no longer standing. Her eyes popped open, and her fingers gripped his shoulders. “What—”

“You need to sleep.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he cut her off with a hard kiss. By the time he lifted his head again, she was no longer thinking of how to get out of his arms. 

Giving in, and relishing the way being in his arms made her feel, Rebecca rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Just this once, she’d forget all the things she should do, and enjoy this moment. She knew there was no future with Gage, but for whatever reason, fate had thrown them together and made him nearly impossible to resist. 

His body moved beneath her as he walked up the stairs and down the hall. He lowered her to the bed, but she didn’t open her eyes. The mattress sunk in response to his weight. 

As he released her arms from around his neck, the cool air hit her skin and she frowned. She felt his fingers ghost into her pocket. Absentmindedly, she realized he must have been removing her phone for her. That brought a small smile to her lips. Then he was gone, and the cool air of the room wrapped around her body once again. The sun was shining through the curtains of the large windows, but it was no comparison to the warmth she’d felt nestled up against Gage’s body. She felt the scowl beginning to return. Before she could think it through any further, however, the bed dipped and arms encircled her. She rolled over instinctively and buried her face in his heat. Seconds later, she was asleep.

Chapter 14

The first thing that registered in Rebecca’s mind as consciousness returned was that she was not alone. A very warm body pressed against her back. A very warm, very large male body, with his arm slung over her hip. There was no way it was her sister snuggled up behind her. 

Her heart rate immediately spiked in panic, and she quickly took in her surroundings. She wasn’t in her room. The walls were a warm tan color, not the blue of the guest room where she’d been staying. They were also darker than the cream in the room her sister was using. No, she was quite certain she was in Gage’s room. Lying in his bed. With him. The only consolation was that she was still completely clothed. She could feel her gun and ankle holster pressing into her leg.  

She racked her brain trying to recall how she’d ended up in his bed. After they’d picked up her sister from the bus station, she’d been exhausted. Her defenses against Gage’s pull weakened. Closing her eyes, she groaned as she remembered him carrying her up the stairs and putting her into bed. She’d thought it had been her bed, not his. What was wrong with her? 

Before that train of thought went any further, she gently lifted the arm holding her and extracted herself from his grasp. Out of the bed, she spotted her phone lying on the nightstand and her shoes at the end of the bed. Grabbing them, she tiptoed as quietly as possible across the hall to her bedroom. 

After making sure the door was shut and locked, she let her body sink to the floor, her head falling into her palms. The weight of everything finally hit her, and she let all the emotions she’d been holding in crawl to the surface. Her baby sister was downstairs needing her to be the strong, confident rock she always was. Megan was counting on her. The problem was, Rebecca felt anything but confident. The man in the next room was playing havoc with her emotions, her body. She had no idea how to act around him, how to do her job. Now she was going to have to find it in her somehow to deal with her sister’s crisis, too. She just didn’t know how.

She had no idea how long she stayed there, sitting on the floor, but eventually she got herself under control. Pushing herself up off the floor, she stood then walked into her bathroom and turned on the shower. Steam filled the room as she stripped off her layers of clothing one by one. Standing naked in front of the mirror, she looked at her reflection. Unfortunately, her reflection held no more answers than it usually did. 

Brushing the hair away from her face, she turned her back on her reflection and stepped into the shower spray. Tears threatened as the water cascaded over her, but she refused to let them fall. She was better than this. Stronger. No matter what life threw at her, she could deal with it. She always did. Little by little, she washed away everything, including the memory of how it had felt to wake up in Gage’s arms. 

The shower did help. She didn’t feel quite as raw as when she’d walked into her room almost an hour before. That was good. With her sister there, she wasn’t going to be able to hide out in her room as she’d been doing. She was going to have to go out there and face her sister . . . and Gage. As she thought his name, that feeling of unease began to creep up again. 

Squashing the feeling quickly before it had time to take hold, she hurried across the room to her closet. Her hand hovered over one of the many pairs of jeans Charlie had brought over for her, the ones she’d been wearing without thought for the last week and a half, but she stopped herself. She needed distance, something that would make her feel as if she were in charge of her life again. Without second-guessing herself, she pushed the designer jeans and sweaters aside and reached for the navy blue pantsuit she’d brought with her from home. 

The fabric felt good against her skin, almost like a security blanket. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed as much normalcy as she could get. Maybe that made her weak, but it was what she needed. 

Looking in the mirror, she gave herself a once-over. She’d left her hair down, and debated putting it up in a ponytail or a bun, the way she used to wear it. Gathering her hair, she pulled it up behind her head and held it for all of five seconds before releasing it to fall back down to brush against the lapels of her suit jacket. 

She contemplated for another five minutes before she finally decided to leave her hair as it was. No man was worth all this drama—she’d learned that a long time ago. Grabbing her gun and holster, she strapped her weapon to her ankle and headed toward the door. 

The hallway was empty when she emerged from her room. Gage’s bedroom door was open, but she hadn’t closed it when she made her escape earlier. She was tempted to sneak a look inside to see if he was sleeping, but she was almost afraid of what she’d find. What if he was still in there and woke up the moment she peeked in to check on him? She wasn’t ready for a confrontation like that . . . especially not in his bedroom. 

Tentatively, she walked down the stairs onto the main level. No one was visible, so she decided to go straight to her sister’s room first. Before she reached the end of the hall, however, she heard voices coming from downstairs. A few moments later, she heard it again—two distinct voices—one male, one female. Changing direction, she walked back to the staircase. 

She paused before she reached the bottom of the stairs. Whether she liked it or not, she needed a few extra seconds before coming face-to-face with Gage again. She had no idea how he’d react. Her defenses had been down, and he’d taken advantage. One side of her was angry that he’d crossed into territory he knew she had no intention of crossing, when she was at her most vulnerable. The other reminded her of the mixed signals she’d been giving him for the last two weeks, one moment pushing him away, the next welcoming his kisses. It had to stop. Tugging on the bottom of her jacket, she thrust her shoulders back and took the final steps.

Gage came into view first, his broad shoulders hunched over slightly and shaking with laughter. His face was in profile, a broad smile lighting up his handsome features. Of its own volition, her body reacted. She felt a tightening in the pit of her stomach, a tingling in her fingers. 

Fortunately, her sister took that moment to notice her standing on the other side of the room. “Hey!” Megan hopped down from the stool she’d been sitting on, laid down the cards Rebecca had missed in both their hands, and walked toward her sister. 

Rebecca planted what she hoped was a sincere smile on her face as she greeted Megan. “Feeling better?”

“A little,” Megan said, sobering. 

Reaching out with her right hand, Rebecca brushed the hair out of her sister’s eyes. Megan needed her bangs trimmed, it seemed. Normally, her sister kept up her appearance, liking her short, no-fuss hairstyle. When it came to relationships, however, her sister got distracted. She’d put everything into making it work, even if the guy on the receiving end wasn’t so generous. 

Rebecca felt a wave of sadness wash over her. She wanted to help her sister. She just didn’t know how. 

“Do you want to join us?” Gage’s voice pulled her out of the fog. Her gaze rose to meet his for a split-second before going back to Megan. Rebecca couldn’t look at him. Not yet. If she looked at him, she was afraid she’d crumble. 

“Yeah,” Megan said, chiming in, the smile beginning to return. “We’re playing cards. I wanted to play poker, but Gage didn’t think you’d approve.” As Megan spoke, she pulled her sister toward the table where they’d been sitting. 

The urge to glance over at him was there, but she resisted, keeping her focus solely on her sister. “Why would I object to you playing poker?” Rebecca asked, confused. Yes, she was protective of her sister, but— 

 “Strip poker. I said I doubted your sister would approve of us playing
strip
poker.”

Megan pouted playfully. “That’s the only fun way to play poker. The regular way is just plain boring.”

Ignoring her sister’s comment, she addressed the drink Megan had obviously been nursing. “Have you eaten anything?”

“Yep. Gage made me a sandwich,” Megan said, taking a sip of her beer. 

“Do you want to play with us?” Gage asked again. 

Rebecca glanced down at the table. “UNO?”

He smiled, and Rebecca felt her stomach do a little flip. “I figured that was safest.” 

“You want us to deal you in, Becca?”

“No. I need to go back upstairs for a little while,” she said, already moving back toward the stairs. “I’ll be back down later. If you’re still playing, I’ll join you then.” She gave her sister a weak smile and then raced upstairs. This was going to be much harder than she thought. 

Gage watched as Rebecca disappeared up the stairs. He didn’t like seeing her back in her stuffy old suits, but he couldn’t say he was surprised. She’d been more open to his affections that morning than she’d ever been. He should have known she’d try to compensate. The fact that she’d left her hair down, made him smile. Whether she realized it or not, he’d broken through some of those sky-high walls of hers. Maybe broken through was a little much. Maybe chipped away was more accurate.

“What’s going on between you and my sister?” Megan asked, pulling him away from his thoughts.

“I’m grabbing a water. Want some?”

“No. I’m fine. And stop trying to avoid the question,” Megan said. The look on her face at that moment reminded him of Rebecca. 

He chuckled and squeezed behind the bar for a glass. “I’m not avoiding, but maybe you should ask your sister that question.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Good,” he said, sitting back down at the table. “We gonna finish playing this hand or what?” 

“Yeah.” 

Throughout the rest of the hand, she continued to watch him speculatively, like if she could look hard enough, she might find the answers she wanted. 

Megan was the exact opposite of her sister in many ways. She was a lot more outgoing, dressed more like a teenager than a twenty-three-year-old woman, and she was extremely comfortable with her sexuality. Like her sister, however, she also appeared able to beat a subject to death if it would get her what she was after. 

Deciding maybe a change of subject was best, he played his next card and asked, “Your sister seems really worried about you.”

“Yeah,” Megan said, picking at invisible lint on her fitted T-shirt. “Then again, Becca always worries about me.”

Even though Gage didn’t want to get into the drama, he was interested in learning more about what made Rebecca tick. “And why’s that?” he asked, trying to keep it casual.