Ryder: #4 (Allen Securities) (11 page)

“That’s not what the books said,” she grumbled.

Ryder rolled to his side and pulled her backside to his hard on.

“Is that a challenge?” he growled.

Irene gasped, but he was surprised to find her responsive to him.

“Go to sleep,” he whispered. “Let me get us off this fucking mountain, and I’ll lock you in the bedroom for weeks.”

He liked that her breath hitched at the idea of spending weeks with him off the mountain. Lord help him if she shut him out again.

Chapter Ten

Irene woke up the next morning warm and content. She snuggled deeper into Ryder’s arms and smiled. It was a good place to be. Sure, they were in a sort of hell and, sure, a mad man was out to kill them, but being there with Ryder made it all matter just a little less.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

“Morning,” he said.

“Morning,” she said.

“Did we sleep in?” He frowned.

Irene glanced behind her at the gap in the brush.

“Must have,” she said. “It’s pretty bright out.”

Ryder sat up quickly and sniffed the air.

“Get dressed,” he said.

Irene sniffed. The scent of pine filled the air.

“The fire,” she whispered.

“Quick,” he said.

Irene raced to gather all her clothes and put them on. She stuffed her bag with the rest and followed Ryder out of the brush.

It was the closest they had been to the fire since the cabin.

“We’re still a good ways away, but a good wind, and it could be on us quick,” he said.

They watched for a minute as fire licked the trees down the mountain.

“How are you feeling?” he asked quietly.

Irene turned to look at him. “Like I want to get off this mountain and have my two weeks of bedroom time.” She grinned.

Ryder grinned back. “First, we’ve got a mountain to climb.”

They stared up the steep terrain. Up to this point, it had mainly been forest floor, but soon, they were going to leave the forest behind and move on to steep rocky slopes.

Not wasting any time, they pushed their way through the forest and started up the rocky path. Part way through the climb, Irene’s limbs started to shake.

“What’s wrong?” Ryder said from behind her.

She shook her head. This wasn’t the time to start complaining. They had a long day ahead of them, and there was no telling how fast those fires would get to them.

“Hey.” Ryder rushed in front of her. His concerned face made her stomach do flips. “Don’t push yourself like that,” he said. “We’ve been running non-stop for days, and I forget that you aren’t used to this.”

He pulled his pack in front and forced her to sit on the rock she had been trying to climb. She was surprised when he pulled out a full bottle of water and a protein bar.

“Eat this,” he barked.

She watched as he pulled out one for himself and sat down next to her.

Irene tore open the wrapper and took a bite. She wrinkled her nose.

“Not exactly good, but it’s got everything you need.” Ryder chuckled. “I always keep some around just in case.”

She glanced at him and then back to the bottle of water.

“In case you’re on assignment?” she asked quietly.

He turned and gave a nod.

“Sometimes I’m out for days, and it’s the only way I can make sure I get what I need,” he said.

She nodded. Irene wasn’t totally sure she wanted to know everything that he had to do, but Victoria had a point the other day when she discussed the nature of his job. Ryder and his brothers were heroes. The number of people she’d seen them save was amazing, and that was just in the short time she knew them. Who knew how many they had helped?

“Do you like it?” she asked “The danger?”

Ryder stared at her for a bit before answering.

“I wouldn’t really say like, but I’m good at it. I’ve always been able to handle situations under pressure.” He shrugged. “It just made sense.”

She watched as he took a drink off the bottle and swallowed. Did everything about him have to be so sexy? When he set the bottle down and looked her way, her face heated, and she was certain he knew what he did to her.

“When I finished school, there really weren’t a ton of options,” he said. “I busted my knee senior year, killing any chance for football scholarships. So I started contracting out through a friend in the military. I was a big guy and that’s what they needed.”

“Sounds dangerous,” she said. Irene picked up the bottle to wash down the bad tasting chocolate bar.

“It was,” he said, emotion leaving his face. “But I was young and stupid, and the pay was way too good to pass up.”

She put on the lid back and handed the drink back.

“But you stopped?”

Ryder took the bottle from her and pulled her hand to his. It seemed so small in his own.

“There was a mission,” he said. “It was supposed to be a simple retrieval of some dignitary. Something went wrong. Some informant got it wrong.”

He traced the inside of her palm absently.

“It was a bloodbath,” he said. “They didn’t spare anyone there.”

Irene frowned. “The people who took the dignitary hostage?”

Ryder shook his head. “He was being kept with a family. Sometimes people are forced into things because there is no choice. It was just a family. Doing what they had to in order to get by and because of that, they were murdered. We found out later it was by the bastard running the whole show. Even the children. He found out we were coming, and he didn’t want any loose ends. So, he had those loose ends taken care of.”

Her heart hurt for him.

“It was the line,” he said and looked up. “Every man has a line, and that was mine. I wanted to know that whatever I was doing, I was hitting the right person. We weren’t wrong in trying to find the dignitary. I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to know that if I killed a man, it was because he had it coming, not that his wife was getting killed by some ruthless bastard to cover his own ass.”

Irene nodded.

“But that might not matter soon.” He sighed and stood. “I’ve already talked to Reed. He knows how you feel about my job and that I’ll do whatever I have to.”

She opened her mouth to respond when a deafening boom ripped through the air.

“Get down!” Ryder pushed her down hard behind the rock they had been sitting on and covered her body with his own.

The ground rocked and shook under her. A cloud of dirt filled the air and choked her lungs. Ryder pulled her shirt up over her mouth and nose, doing the same for himself. She closed her eyes as the grit bit at her face and pelted her arms. The earth erupted all around them.

They stayed that way until the dust started to settle, and when they sat up, Irene was shocked by the destruction around them. To their right, previously standing shrubs or trees lay flat among the rocks and dirt. Her stomach churned at how close they had been to being buried under the rubble.

“Landslide?” She turned to Ryder.

He shook his head and stared further up the mountain, narrowing his eyes.

“Dynamite,” he said.

She shook as she looked back at him. Wolf had tried to bury them.

“Let’s go,” he said. “We need to keep moving.”

Ryder scanned far off into the distance. He couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean that Kert wasn’t out there waiting for them. He wondered if Kert even realized that his original target, Victoria, was gone. Though maybe he did, and this was just another level of insane vengeance from a vicious thug who had set an entire mountain on fire just to get at one girl.

They just needed to get a little further away from the fire before he radioed Charlie again. Hopefully, he would have some good news about getting out of there. There was only so far they would be able to go before the cold started to get to them.

As it was, he could feel the temperature dropping the higher they climbed. Irene hadn’t complained yet, but he was worried. All morning she had been very quiet, and after last night, it might have been too much physical activity. He just hoped the protein bar was enough to get her through for a bit longer.

Now, they were doing more climbing than hiking. The shelter of larger rocks was his best option, but if Kert had another stick of dynamite, they might not make it out alive. They moved rock to rock. He hated to push her so hard, but there was nothing he could do but keep moving forward.

By mid-day, they had made it higher than he’d ever been on the mountain, and it was starting to show. He pulled out his coat and wrapped Irene in it as their breath turned to cold puffs of air.

Ryder pulled out the walkie-talkie.

“Charlie,” he called.

They waited in silence as static filled the line. At this point, they might be too far up to even get a signal, but he had to keep trying.

“Charlie,” he said again.

The walkie-talkie crackled for a moment.

“Thank God,” Charlie said, loud and clear. He never thought he’d be so happy to hear his voice.

“We’ve had to move up further up this rock,” Ryder said.

“We heard a blast earlier,” he said, his voice grim. “Then we didn’t hear from you. I didn’t want to call you and maybe give up your position, but we were worried…”

He trailed off, and it was clear what they had thought.

“It was Kert. He nearly had us, but his aim was off,” Ryder said. “Tell me some good news. We need to get the hell out of here.”

Charlie clicked on and sighed. “Well, the good news is that there’s a storm moving in tonight that they expect should put out a good part of the fires, so we should be able to get to you sometime tomorrow.”

Irene leaned on him. It was just the news that they needed to hear. He stiffened when Charlie came back on.

“The bad news is that you’re far enough north, that you’ll be hit with snow given how high up you are,” he said solemnly.

Ryder looked up to the graying sky. Snow changed everything.

“What can we do?” Ryder waited for his last line of hope.

“There’s a place further up,” he said. “A cabin. Hell, it even has a gas oven and heated shower. You’ll need to push hard to get there before the snow hits, but it will work. Just head toward the large jutted rock.”

Ryder frowned. “How do you know how far up we are?”

“You’re just gonna have to trust me on this,” Charlie called back.

Ryder looked to Irene. He’d been burned before. This could turn out to be a very bad idea in the end.

“If I wanted to kill you, kid, there’d be far easier ways,” Charlie cut in.

Ryder couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. The rotten SOB was right. There had already been plenty of chances.

“Roger that.”

“So, up we go,” Irene said.

Ryder pulled her hands into his own and rubbed them vigorously.

“Only a little longer,” he whispered.

She nodded and stood. “Let’s get going,” she said. “Maybe we can get a fire going.”

* * *

The wind howled around them the higher they climbed. Eventually, Ryder gave up on trying not to be cold and pulled out the blanket from her bag. Irene was glad to see that she wasn’t the only one freezing and felt bad using his jacket. Several times she offered to trade, but he insisted she wear it. When they had reached the large rock, they could just make out the cabin in the distance.

“Only a little further,” Ryder shouted over the roar of the wind.

She marveled at why anyone would even want to build a cabin so far up where their chances of being snowed in were so high.

Big flakes started floating down half-way from the rock to the cabin. The wind whipped them in her face like glass and made it difficult to even see where she was going. Several times she stumbled because her feet were nearly numb. She hoped that the double layer of socks would save her toes from being frozen off.

When they reached the door, she was surprised to find it unlocked. They stepped in, and she sighed. It wasn’t warm, but they were out of the brutal wind.

Ryder stepped back on the porch and pulled in armfuls of wood.

“We’re in luck. Seems like Charlie was here recently, so we’re be good for the night,” he said and placed the logs in the fireplace.

Irene walked around the cabin while Ryder set to work making a fire. Soon, they would be able to get warm and maybe even have something to eat. She went to the kitchen and was surprised to find the cabinets stocked with food. She opened the fridge and found a few items in there as well.

When she came into the front room, she found Ryder on the floor in front of a roaring fire. Irene came over to sit with him.

“Are you sure it’s Charlie’s cabin?” she asked.

He turned to her and shook his head. “I’m not sure of anything when it comes to him. Why?”

She glanced back at the kitchen.

“There are things in the refrigerator, and the pantry is fully stocked.” She looked back at him. “I think someone is living here.”

Ryder stood and rummaged through his pack. He pulled out the walkie-talkie.

“Charlie,” he called.

“You safe?” Charlie asked.

Irene wondered if he was waiting for their call.

“We’re safe,” he said. “Is this your place? Lot of stuff here for just a cabin.”

There was silence for a moment before he came back on.

“It’s in my name, but I’ve been letting a friend use it,” he said. “He’s out for a few days, so you’re fine. I’ve let him know. Help yourself to the food.”

“Thanks,” Ryder said. “I owe you.”

“Let’s just call it even,” Charlie said.

Ryder put down the walkie-talkie and sat beside her. The heat from the fire felt amazing after the hell they had been through. He gathered a few blankets and cushions from the couch to make themselves more comfortable.

“I’m so hungry.” She yawned. “I need to eat.”

She placed her head on his lap to stare at the fire. He brushed her hair from her face.

“Just relax for a bit,” he said quietly. “You were so cold before. Let yourself warm up.”

He was right. She felt cold all the way to her bones. It was a kind of cold that she never wanted to feel again. She’d take jumping in the creek any day over that.