Promises (4 page)

Gunfire erupted behind him, bringing him to his knees.
 
He’d been hit, but not bad.
 
Forcing himself back to his feet, he trudged deeper into the woods, fighting wave after wave of dizziness.
 
He struggled to keep his eyes open and leaned back against a tree.
 
The echo of gunfire abruptly stopped.
 
Someone must have interrupted them.

More than anything, he wanted to sink down to the ground and let his life’s blood spill out onto the forest floor, but Jase’s face appeared in front of him, urging him on, reminding him of his job, of his promise to keep Barbara safe.
 

He seemed so real.
 
Reaching out to touch his friend, he succumbed to the darkness shrinking in around him.
 

“That’s in South Carolina, by the way.”
 
The shapely little woman’s voice cut through the stream of memories.
 

Why did he get the feeling he was missing something here?
 
He hadn’t asked to be her houseguest.
 
She could have left him on the ground where she’d found him or better still called the authorities.
 
“You want to tell me why you brought me here?”

“Brought you here?”
 
She crossed her arms firmly.
 
“I did
not
bring you here.”
 

So he was an uninvited guest, but that still didn’t explain how he got there.
 
Then again, she could be lying.
 
She could be working for Steele, but then if she were, he’d probably be dead.

“You were here when I got home, soaking wet and out cold on my living room floor,” she continued.

He looked down at the beast now standing protectively by her side.
 
Her snippy tone had apparently alerted Monstro to go into protect mode.
 

Great.
 
Just what I need.
 
An attractive, disgruntled female with a killer dog
.
 

He pinched the bridge of his nose.
 
Why were things never easy?
 
He should’ve listened to his mother and become a chef instead of a Federal agent.
 

Oh, but noooo
.
 
He just had to chase bad guys.
 
He just had to have the insane thrill of living on the edge.
 

Well, love it or hate it, he still had a job to do.
 
A very important job.
 
He needed to get out of this quaint little cabin and get back on the road, far away from beauty and the beast.
 

“In that case, lady, I’ll be out of here as soon as I have my clothes,” he said.

She dropped her arms, her expression softening.
 
“You can’t leave.
 
You’re dehydrated and recovering from shock.
 
It’ll probably be a couple of days before you can walk without help, much less get anywhere in this storm.”
 

What was with the woman?
 
One minute she hated his guts, the next she was all sweetness and light.
 
“I’m a fast healer.”
 

The miniature blonde bombshell cast him a steely glare.
 
“You can’t leave until you’re leg is better.”

He set the glass of water on the bedside table and pulled back the covers.
 
Jase’s sister was still out there somewhere, and he had to find her before Ballard did, before it was too late.
 
And he wasn’t about to let anyone, not even a beautiful, albeit contrary woman and her big ugly dog stop him.

He’d barely gotten one foot on the floor before her hands were on his shoulders, pressing him firmly back into bed.
 

“Why do men have to be so damned stubborn?” she grumbled.

“Look, lady, it’s been fun, but I can’t stay.”
 
He spoke through clenched teeth, hurting like hell and furious with himself for being so weak.
 
He didn’t stand a chance against her and her dog, not to mention Steele’s men.

“Oh, shut-up and lie down.
 
You’ll pull your stitches and start bleeding again.”
 

She gently lifted the leg he’d managed to get over the side of the bed, the one feeling like a lit torch lay against it, and slipped it under the covers.
 

“I can’t stay here,” he said roughly.
 
He couldn’t risk getting an innocent involved.
 
He wouldn’t put anyone else in Steele’s line of fire.

“You don’t have a choice.
 
Until you’re better, you’re not getting out of this bed.”
 
She jerked and pulled at the covers, tucking him in securely.

Unfortunately, she was right.
 
He could barely lift his leg, and he wouldn’t be any use to Barbara in his present condition.
 
He was probably doing her a favor by not being anywhere near her at the moment, anyway.
 
Ballard would be looking for him.
 
Hopefully that would throw the bastard off her scent for a while.

Until he recovered, it appeared he was stuck in the woods with a pushy female and her furry excuse for a garbage disposal.
 
Hoping his presence wouldn’t put her in danger, he accepted the dismal situation with a weighty sigh.

She reached up and fluffed the pillow behind his head, and his perspective appreciably changed.
 
Not a fragile little flower, this woman.
 
He could see her arms were toned, almost muscular, and idly wondered if she lifted weights.
 
Her breasts, now pleasantly filling his vision, were perfectly formed, well rounded, and holding their own without the support of a bra.
 

Nice, very nice
.
 
Since he obviously couldn’t go anywhere at the moment, he might as well enjoy the view, no matter how wrong it was.
 
His mind should be on his work, on finding Barbara, but with his self-appointed nurse’s shapely body teasing him, how could he think straight?

To his slight chagrin, she turned back to the bedside table, retrieved the aspirin and glass of water, and shoved them into his hands.
 
“Drink.”

Pushy, yes, but very pleasant on the eyes.
 
He popped the pills in his mouth and tipped the glass to his lips.
 
Lifting his gaze slowly as he sipped, he leisurely explored her slender neck, discovered the tiny cleft in her chin, drank in the sight of those rosebud lips, and finally caught his first glimpse of her eyes.

Water sloshed out around his mouth and down into his lungs at the unexpected intake of air.

“Are you all right?”
 
She slapped his back, jiggling her lush breasts in his face.

It was almost more than he could stand.
 
Nodding and sputtering, he tried to wave her off.
 

“I’ll go get a towel.”
 
With a final pat, she hurried from the room.

His mind raced as thoughts collided with the possibilities.
 
There couldn’t be another person with eyes exactly like hers.
 
Barbara McBride was the only woman Travis had ever seen who had three different colors in her eyes.
 
He’d seen people with one blue eye and one green before, but never anything like hers.

Barbara’s left eye was half green and half blue, not mixed, but literally half and half cut at an angle, while the other was two-thirds green, one-third blue, with a small drop of brown amid the green.
 
So clear and distinct, as though an artist had painted them.
 
Jase had explained all the genetic mumbo-jumbo that caused the unusual condition and how rare they were, that no two people could have eyes exactly like hers, but all Travis knew was they were beautiful.

The fact he’d actually found Barbara McBride, alive and well, settled on his brain along with a million questions.
 
Why hadn’t she identified herself?
 
Didn’t she recognize him?
 
Sure, they’d met a million years ago, but she had to have seen pictures.
 
He and Jase did everything together.
 
Jase was like the brother he never had.
 
A blessing in itself considering he was surrounded by sisters, two in front and two behind him in age.
 
Barbara had to know who he was.
 
But if she didn’t, then why hadn’t she phoned the police?
 
Why take chances with a stranger?

His lids drifted closed as the questions tumbled and churned, but no answers came to him.
 
At least Steele’s men hadn’t gotten to her.
 
Of course he doubted they’d have much luck in recognizing her, looking the way she did now.
 

He thought back to her college graduation picture.
 
Standing with one arm around Jase, her deep red tresses flowing down over her shoulders, the little pixie he used to tease had grown up.
 
Shockingly, that glimpse of her in the photo had stirred something inside him.
 
Something he wisely never mentioned to his friend, and did his best to ignore.
 
But she’d hovered in the back of his mind for years.
 

She certainly had changed since college.
 
Or were the changes only recent?
 
Most likely she’d whacked off her deep red hair and bleached it to a bright blonde to throw Steele off the track.
 
Sadly, he missed that gorgeous mane.
 
The kind a guy wants to sink his hands into and hold on tight, but she’d done the right thing.
 
He just needed to know
why
she went into hiding.

A grin stole across his sore mouth at the memory of her tagging along behind him and Jase, her cute little pigtails bouncing as she trotted to keep up with them.
 
Fishing, basketball, football, it didn’t matter what they were doing, she was determined to be right there in the thick of things.

“Barbie,” he muttered softly.
 
Jase had tormented her throughout the years with that moniker.
 
She always insisted on being called Bobbi, and Jase stubbornly, lovingly, the way only a big brother could, invariably called her Barbie.
 

Jason McBride adored his kid sister.
 
They shared everything.
 
Their aspirations, their hopes, their dreams, and their troubles.
 
Only this time Barbie had managed to get mixed up in something far bigger and far more dangerous than he or Jase had ever imagined.
 

To get the evidence the Bureau needed to put Phillip Steele, a drug smuggling murderer behind bars, Jase went deep undercover.
 
All connection between them had been cut off for his safety and only a select few knew the particulars, but something went wrong.
 

First Jase disappeared, then almost immediately, his sister dropped out of sight.
 
A fact that still disgusted Travis.
 
He’d failed to uphold his promise to keep her safe.
 
He feared the worst for his friend and Barbara, and rightly so.
 
Two months after Jase vanished, a body was found on a riverbank in Charleston.
 
Unable to make a visual ID, dental records had to be used.
 
Jase’s dental records.
 

Travis’ best friend and partner was dead.

Dissatisfied with the sketchy answers he received from the Bureau about Jase’s murder and their weak attempts to gain information about Barbara’s disappearance, he decided to take an extended leave to do a little investigating on his own.
 
He followed every trail, checked out every piece of evidence, and came up with nothing.
 
His last hope, a long shot at best, had brought him to Francis Marion National Forest.
 

He still couldn’t believe he’d actually found her.
 
Only Steele’s men weren’t far behind.
 
Above all else, he had to protect her, and he had to tell her about Jase.
 

Bobbi hurried back into the bedroom with the towel, her hands trembling with her ridiculous spurt of anger.
 
Just because he didn’t recognize her, didn’t remember anything that had happened, didn’t have a clue as to how much she worried about him, it wasn’t the end of the world.
 
It was actually to her advantage to keep her identity a secret for a little while longer until she knew why he came, but her feelings were hurt just the same.

God, the hours she’d spent dreaming about him, doodling his name on every scrap of paper, hoping and wishing that someday he’d see her as something other than his best friend’s baby sister.
 
She couldn’t believe she was being so childish, and yet, he wasn’t the gangly handsome young man of her dreams any longer.
 
Travis had become a broad-shouldered, heart stopping, dangerously gorgeous man.
 
He didn’t do the tattered photograph she had of him justice.
 

She could still feel the heat of his chest against her palms when she’d put him back in bed and ached to touch him again.
 
Although he’d changed and no longer fit into the innocent dreams of her youth, he definitely fit into a grown woman’s fantasy.
 
Boy, did he ever.
 

She jerked slightly at that thought.
 
Whoa.
 
No, definitely not.
 
She’d been down that dead-end road with Roger, and she wasn’t going there ever again.
 
When was she going to grow up?
 
Travis was just a guy, not a prince, not a secret lover, none of the starry-eyed nonsense girls thought up during their adolescence.