Callie tapped a foot against the floor. “And those other Russian mob guys weren’t in town long enough to buy anything before we killed them. They really shouldn’t count. I think the mayor is making way too much of that little tiny article.” It hadn’t been tiny. It had been a feature in Time Magazine wondering if Bliss, Colorado, wasn’t the most dangerous place in the United States to visit. Strangely, Laura had noticed it hadn’t really kept the tourists away. If nothing else, there had been an odd surge of thrill seekers, but the mayor and the town council were busily trying to refute the statistics.
“Zane just wants to make sure no one else moves here,” Callie continued. “He likes Bliss just the way it is. He and Nate are like those immigrants who come to a place and then want to build a wall to keep everyone else out.”
Rachel sighed. “I think Max and Rye are right there with them.
Are you ready for some lunch? Jen and I thought we could have some girl time.”
Callie leaned over and kissed Paige’s nearly bald head. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She turned back to Nell. “I’ll see you on Friday. I can’t wait to start my breathing exercises. And tell Irene to bring me a double chocolate Blizzard.” As they left, Rachel turned back to Nell, her eyes silently promising retribution if Callie didn’t get her drugs.
“Hey, Holly and Nell, I’m ready for you guys,” Brooke Harper called out from the back of the store.
Holly got up. “Time to get poked and prodded.”
“Darlin’, it’s always the right time to get prodded if it’s with the right instrument,” Wolf said with a grin on his ridiculously handsome face.
Holly shook her head and wandered off to her fitting. Nell gave Laura a hug.
“Maybe Rachel is right. Maybe I should think about my plumbing practices.”
It was time to go a little alpha on Nell. “Nell, you are not getting an outhouse. No one will come to your place and make blankets for the homeless if they have to use an outhouse.” Nell bit at her lower lip. “I suppose you’re right. Well, I like my bathroom anyway, and if it helps the homeless, then I’ll keep it the way it is.”
“You’re very good with her,” Wolf said as Laura sat back down after her friends were gone. “And you were quite good with Rachel.
You’re a very intuitive woman.”
Laura took a sip of her tea and wished with all her heart she could feel a deep connection to the man in front of her. Wolf Meyer was everything she could hope for. He was well educated, gorgeous, and kind. He was easier to get along with than any man she’d met in a long time. So why did she long for the fight? For the push and pull she’d had with Rafe and Cam?
Rafe and Cam had turned out to be assholes.
Laura stopped herself. She couldn’t think that way. They weren’t assholes. They were just men looking out for their careers. That was the way it was in the real world. It hadn’t really been their fault that she’d been taken hostage and nearly murdered by a serial killer. They had followed their leads, and she had followed hers. Her heart ached, but that was the way it was.
A callused hand slid over hers. “You’re so far away.”
“Sorry. I was thinking about something else.”
“Or someone else,” Wolf murmured. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to go out with me tonight. I think your answer is going to be no, isn’t it?”
“Oh, Wolf, I am so sorry.”
He shook his head. “It’s all right. I like you, Laura. I like you a lot, but I don’t intend to be here for too long. I’m getting back in.” Laura doubted that. Wolf had been discharged from the Navy against his own wishes. He’d taken heavy fire in Afghanistan, and given his injuries, the Navy decided to decline his offer to re-up. He’d flown in to Washington just weeks before to try to talk his way back in, but Laura doubted it would happen.
“I hope you do,” she said.
Wolf seemed a little lost. He’d come home to recuperate at his mother’s house. He’d been working odd jobs in the months since he’d returned. Laura had met him through James Glen, a local rancher Wolf was friends with.
“It’ll happen,” Wolf said with confidence. “Now, I was also looking for you for another reason. Do you have any idea why feds would be looking for you?”
Laura sat straight up. Every nerve in her body came alive with suspicion. “What feds?”
“I went by your place, and there were a couple of feds knocking on your door. They asked if I knew where you were, but I said no. I said I hadn’t seen you in a couple of days, but that they should go up to Mountain and Valley because you spend a lot of time up there.” And they would believe Wolf, because he was an excellent liar.
Laura had sensed that about him. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t have to, but if the occasion called for it, Wolf Meyer could lie and never bat an eye. He would have made an excellent CIA operative if he hadn’t been a SEAL. She couldn’t help it. Even five years after she’d been fired from her job, she still profiled everyone around her. “That should throw them off for a while.”
The Mountain and Valley was the local naturist community, a nudist colony on the mountain. Bill Hartman ran the place, and he didn’t like feds, either. Bliss was a very suspicious community. Bill would likely send them on a merry chase.
Wolf leaned forward in his chair, his dark eyes softening, drawing her in. He was also damn good at that. “I wanted to give you a little time if you needed to get out of here. I don’t have anything to do, Laura. If you want to, say, take a little trip, I can go with you, make sure you’re safe. I can take care of you.” Oh, yeah, she was a dumb shit for not falling for this guy, but it wouldn’t be fair to him. “I’m not on the run, Wolf. Well, not in the way you think. I’m not wanted for anything.”
“But you would prefer not to talk to the feds?” Oh, she would prefer to never see a federal agent for the rest of her life. When she’d walked out of DC, she’d done it for good. She’d known she would never go back. That was why she’d changed her name and hadn’t spoken to anyone she knew from there in five years.
Her parents were gone. She had a sister who lived in France. Laura talked to her once a year, but Michelle had promised not to tell anyone where Laura was. They had agreed that it was best for Laura to hide. Given the fact that she was certain the Marquis de Sade was involved in some sort of law enforcement, she didn’t particularly want them to know where she was hiding.
“No, I would rather not talk to them, but now I’m curious.” And a little scared. Had he caught up to her? “Are you sure they were FBI?”
“If they weren’t, then they were doing a damn fine impersonation.
And that’s the other thing I want to talk to you about. We need to get rid of those guys, whoever they are. Mel is out at my mom’s, but he’s going to come into town at some point in time today, and what’s he going to see? Two dudes in suits and sunglasses riding around in a dark SUV.”
Laura sighed. Mel wouldn’t see feds. Mel was a lovely man, but he was also insanely paranoid about aliens and all the things that went with them. “Men in black.”
Wolf pointed. “On the nose, love. My mom’s boyfriend is going to flip out, and then he’ll come and get my mom and they’ll end up in the bomb shelter plotting how to survive the invasion, and I’ll have to call my brother to talk her down. I don’t want to call my brother.
Every time I call my brother I get a lecture about moving on. I get some Zen-craptastic speech on how getting booted from the teams is the best thing in the world for me—or it would be if I would get a job.
Like he has a job. Do you know what he does? My sainted brother works in a BDSM club spanking subs. Maybe if some dude was willing to pay me a ton of money to spank pretty subs, I would be fine with my military career being over. So we need to figure out how to get the feds into something less conspicuous so my mom’s boyfriend doesn’t freak. You see the precarious house of cards I live in?” Wolf was talking, but his voice had faded to the background. Only one thing held Laura’s attention as a big, black SUV pulled up, and Laura realized her time was up.