In the Lawman's Protection Page 6

“No, that means you’ll have nothing. We’ll share it.”

  Ren had to tamp down the unexpected pleasure that bubbled through his system at the thought of lying next to Natalie. His body didn’t seem to care that she was probably a criminal and, if her ex-husband had rubbed off on her at all, she’d be able to kill him while he slept without blinking an eye.

  No, his body wasn’t interested in acknowledging that at all.

  He distracted himself by getting some of the snow from outside and placing it inside her water bottle—a perk he hadn’t planned on having this early, but was willing to take advantage of—so it would be melted and ready for consumption by the morning. He’d had a large water bottle stashed in the cave when they’d cleaned it out, but now they wouldn’t have to use it and explain the sudden appearance of clean drinking water.

  He helped her spread the jackets out on the ground so they could lie down on those and would be able to pull the sleeping bag over them. It wasn’t going to be the Ritz, but it wasn’t half bad.

  “I’m feeling much better,” she said as she settled next to him, close enough for their body heat to help each other.

  “Do you want to tell me what the whole snow thing was about?” he asked.

  He could feel her stiffen. “It’s a long story. I just don’t like snow. I’ve lived in California for six years so it hasn’t been an issue. I guess I was just overwhelmed tonight. I still feel so off.”

  It had been a hell of a lot more than not liking snow, but Ren let it pass. “You’ll feel better tomorrow. Let’s get some rest.”

  He didn’t say anything else, didn’t give her a chance to say anything else. He just slid behind her on top of the jackets and put her between him and the fire. He reached down and pulled the sleeping bag over them both.

  There wasn’t much room in the cave, even less in their little sleeping pallet. Although they were both on their backs, Ren was pressed up against Natalie from shoulder to knee. Between the warmth, the exhaustion from what had happened and the drugs still in her system, she should’ve been asleep pretty rapidly. But an hour later, her stiff form announced that she was far from sleep.

  “Peaches, what’s wrong?”

  She got stiffer. “I just...can’t... There’s so much... What if...”

  When she couldn’t get any more words out, Ren did what his body had been begging him to do since they’d lain down. He flipped her on her side so she was facing the fire, slid one arm under her so it cradled her head and wrapped the other around her abdomen and pulled her back until she was firmly tucked against his front.

  And damned if her body didn’t fit perfectly with his. He wanted to groan and curse at the same time.

  “You’ve been through a trauma,” he whispered in her ear. “Your body needs rest. I’m not going to let anything happen to you while you’re asleep, okay?” He pulled her a little closer to his body. “Anything that’s going to try to get to you has to go through me and that’s...”

  Ren trailed off. She was already asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  Damien walked from room to room inside the large Santa Barbara beach house.

  Natalie—his Natalie—had been here. He breathed the air from the house deep into his lungs, as if he could inhale her very scent. Natalie was alive.

  To discover this wondrous news after all this time was nothing short of a miracle. Ironically, he had Omega Sector, the very people he’d been trying to punish for taking his Natalie away in the first place, to thank for the information. Even though Damien’s mole inside Omega was gone, he still had one small channel of information open to him that they hadn’t found.

  It was what had allowed him to discover and obtain the biological warfare canisters. He was sure they’d discover the tiny leak soon, but it didn’t matter, because the most important information he could’ve ever discovered already had been.

  Natalie was alive.

  He’d gotten the canisters where they’d needed to go, then flew directly to California as soon as Omega agents—his old nemeses Brandon and Andrea—had been brought in to make contact with Natalie. He wasn’t sure how long he’d missed them by, but it was long enough. Now he had no idea where Natalie was, again. He’d have to wait for another phone call to trigger more information.

  Damien’s fingers strolled along the top of the couch, imagining her sitting here with her feet propped up on the table. She’d always been sloppy like that until he’d come along and cared enough about her to teach her proper behavior. How to be the perfect wife.

  Their marriage had been perfect, everything either of them could ever want. He’d helped her become a flawless model of what a wife could be and she’d loved him for it.

  He wasn’t sure exactly what had happened six years ago. Natalie had obviously been hurt—some sort of head trauma that had caused her to forget their marriage. Forget their perfect life together.

  Because the alternative—that she’d run from him on purpose—was impossible.

  He walked into the master bedroom, straight up to the bed, pulling back the covers. He bent low so he could smell the pillowcases, wanting to catch even the faintest hint of her essence. Did she still wear the perfume he’d picked out for her during their marriage?

  He liked the thought of that. Maybe a subconscious urge she’d had that she didn’t even understand because of her memory loss. But deep inside, her brain knew, because like her body and her heart it still belonged to him.

  He sniffed again, ripping the pillows off the bed and throwing them to the floor when he couldn’t smell anything remotely resembling his Natalie.

  He stared at the bed. She had slept here. Without him.

  Had someone else joined her in it?

  Rage rose in him like a savage wave. His teeth clenched as he forced himself to take a calming breath.

  If someone had so much as even touched her, that man would die. And she would need to be punished. He didn’t enjoy punishing her, of course. That would make him a monster. But he understood the necessity for it. It helped make her perfect. She’d always understood that, too.

  He didn’t know how long it would be before he received word of where Natalie was. And he refused to always be a step behind in something this important. So he would take matters into his own hands as he waited.

  This house wasn’t in Natalie’s name, so it belonged to someone else. Damien would find them and have a talk with them about what they knew. Every single thing they knew.

  And then he would find the love of his life once more. It would be like they had never been apart.

  * * *

  NATALIE WOKE UP SLOWLY, stretching her arm out above her. She’d dreamed of sheep farms and train crashes and caves and sleeping wrapped in...

  “Careful there, Peaches. Don’t want you to stretch too far and accidentally elbow me in the nose.”

  Oh. Sweet. Heaven.

  It hadn’t been a dream. And she was half-sprawled on top of Ren. The sun had come up and now she could very clearly see those clear green eyes of his staring out at her. He had one arm under his head, propping him up in a lazily delicious sort of way. Hair tousled. Smile charming.

  Natalie felt her heart begin thumping harder in her chest. She immediately scooted back away from him. What on earth was she doing—all but lying on top of a man she hardly knew?

  But she couldn’t deny—despite every reason why this shouldn’t be true, and there were many—she’d slept the best she’d ever had since the first time she realized her husband was a monster who would cruelly punish her on a whim. Evidently her exhausted mind had had no trouble giving over her trust to an almost total stranger.

  But now her mind wasn’t exhausted and she wasn’t just going to trust blindly. She had way too many scars to ever let that happen again.

  She scampered back a little farther, ignoring the pang of loss she felt as his
hand fell off her hip.

  “Be careful,” he said. “The fire is mostly out behind you but it might have enough heat to burn.”

  She stopped. “I’m sorry I was basically sprawled all over you.”

  That smile. Sweet mother of chocolate. “No worries. I can think of a number of things worse than waking up with a beautiful woman draped over me.”

  “Even in a cave?”

  His smile faded as if he remembered why they were here. What had happened. “I’ll admit, it isn’t the best of circumstances. Are you feeling better?”

  The fuzziness in her head was gone, she realized, and she didn’t have any pain. So not a head injury, or if it was, not a severe one. “I’m feeling pretty great, considering everything.”

  “Good. Last night you were a little overwhelmed. The crash, of course, and some other stuff.”

  Snow. She knew he was talking about her reaction to the snow. But there was no way to be able to explain that easily so she wasn’t even going to try. “Yeah, I just can’t believe those people are dead. Do you have any idea what happened?”

  “No. It was so chaotic. When I came to, everything was surrounded by smoke. I happened to hear you moaning, so that’s how I got you out. The lady and the guy were... It was already too late for them.”

  “So what is our plan now?”

  “The last thing I checked before we were out of cell tower range was weather. Mostly I was looking at Montana, but I happened to see an overview of here. It’s not good. Snow, Natalie. Not quite a blizzard, but bad.”

  She could feel her teeth clenching. She was just going to have to overcome the snow. Mind over matter. She had control. Wasn’t tied. Wasn’t forced. Wouldn’t need to beg.

  “Natalie?”

  Her eyes snapped to his green ones. “Yep. Got it. We have to walk through the snow and I have to not freak out.”

  “It’s just...”

  She nodded. “Yep,” she said again. “I know. I freaked out a little last night. I won’t let it happen again.”

  “Okay, then we should get on our way. Try to find better shelter than this before worse weather moves in. Or a town. Or cell coverage, or something. Are you sure there’s no one you need to get in touch with who will be worried about you?”

  How did you explain to someone who had multiple people who would be worried if he was a day late that there was literally not one person in the world who cared if Natalie dropped dead right now?

  Maybe Olivia, the waitress from the bar who’d asked Natalie to house-sit in her stead, would be worried. But honestly, Olivia had only asked Natalie because she was desperate to find someone who could take her place. In fact, Olivia had to confirm Natalie was actually her name before she’d asked her about house-sitting. Maybe Natalie’s bosses would notice, but Natalie got the impression they were constantly surprised when she’d always shown up to work since she insisted on being paid cash, which, to them, said she was a flight risk.

  She had spent the last six years not talking to anyone. Trying to make sure no one really noticed her. Obviously she’d been successful. And it pretty much made her pathetic.

  “No, no one will miss me. I guess all my people are used to not hearing from me for a while. We’ll make it somewhere before they get to the point of worry.”

  They shared a protein bar, agreeing that they needed to conserve as much as they could once they got moving, and drank some water through the filtered bottle. They scooted out of the cave into the trees and wilderness surrounding them. They both moved in separate directions to use the bathroom, then came back to wrap up as warmly as possible and were soon ready to leave.

  Natalie looked at the snow. It was uncomfortable, it was cold, but she wasn’t trapped in it. She could get out of it whenever she wanted. She felt much stronger and more in control.

  She would be fine as long as she didn’t think too hard about the fact that she couldn’t actually get out of the snow whenever she wanted. There was nowhere else to go.

  Focus, Natalie. Mind over matter.

  “Which direction are we heading?”

  “East.” Ren pointed the opposite way from where they’d come last night. “If I’m not mistaken that should take us into a lower altitude and should be the most direct route to civilization and/or cell phone coverage.”

  Natalie figured he had just as much to lose—more since he had a business and family—as she did, and since she had no idea which direction they should take, his plan sounded as good as any. Plus, if he had plans to hurt her, he certainly could’ve done it by now.

  But he hadn’t. The opposite, in fact. It didn’t take much to remember the feel of his arms—his whole body—wrapped around her, keeping her safe, warm, protected.

  She forced the thought from her mind. “Sounds good. Let’s go.”

  They began walking.

  “Just let me know if you need a break, okay?” He looked over his shoulder since he was leading. “Don’t let things spiral. If we need to stop, we need to stop. That’s not a problem.”

  She nodded, a little embarrassed that he had to say it. She knew her paranoia, and not just about snow, sometimes got the best of her. Knew her mind was a little broken after what Damien had done to her. All she could do was try to keep everything in check for right now. Just this one minute. She’d survived that way before. She could do it again.

  Chapter Eight

  Ren wasn’t sure exactly what sort of conduct he’d been expecting from Natalie as they walked. Based on last night’s behavior, more distress as they’d walked through the wilderness and snow.

  It wasn’t easy hiking. Even his muscles were complaining, not to mention a couple of his wounds from his special forces days that tended to act up in the cold. But he knew exactly where they were going and how long it would take to get to the hunter’s cabin that would be the crux of this entire mission.

  If he was like Natalie and didn’t know how far they had to go—if they would be able to find shelter before the weather turned worse, and had some sort of snow phobia—he definitely wouldn’t be acting the way she had since they’d started walking.

  Focused.

  She hadn’t muttered a single complaint since they’d left this morning, even though they’d walked for miles. She’d only stopped to drink water and eat a nutrition bar. Every time he’d glanced at her, she was doggedly putting one foot in front of the other.

  The weather had been getting steadily worse, and since he knew there was shelter at the end of this little excursion, he’d had her take out the sleeping bag and wrap it around herself. If she insisted one more time that he take a turn with it, he was going to start feeling bad about leading her in circles in the icy wilderness.

  “I can’t believe it,” he finally said as he led them exactly where he’d planned at exactly the time he’d planned it. He stopped staring at the small structure in front of them. Natalie peeked out from behind him and gasped.

  “Is that a house?”

  She made it sound like a ten-bedroom mansion. He chuckled. “I think house might be a bit too generous.”

  She stepped around him, giving him a grin. “It’s got walls and a roof. That’s a house!”

  She beelined to the door, but he caught up to her before she reached it. “Hang on a second, let me check it first.”

  He grabbed the door and pushed it open. Inside was exactly like it had been when he’d seen it last week. One large room with a small kitchen on one end and a full-size bed in the corner on the opposite side. An old-fashioned metal wood-burning stove sat in the middle of the room with a couch in front of it.

  Natalie was already pushing at his back. “Is it safe? What’s it like? Please tell me the roof isn’t leaking.”

  He stepped all the way in so she could follow. He expected a bit of disdain for the small, almost barren space, especially given the size of her
Santa Barbara beach house, but she surprised him again.

  “Is this not the most amazing place you’ve ever seen?” Her grin was ear to ear.

  He shook his head. “You must really be glad to get out of the snow to think this is the best place ever.”

  She laughed. “Okay, it’s not the White House. But what about that stove, right? And it already feels warmer in here.”

  “That’s because the wind is blocked. But yeah, let’s see about getting the stove to work.”

  They checked the two other doors in the room. One led to a large shed, stacked with wood in the back of the cabin, the other to a detached outhouse. Within fifteen minutes, Ren had a fire blazing and the cabin was warm enough that they had to remove their jackets.

  Natalie wandered into the kitchen, gasping as she found cans of soup and vegetables in the small pantry.

  “What is this place? Obviously it gets used. Are we closer to civilization than we think?”

  Ren shook his head. “Actually, probably the opposite. This is a hikers/hunters cabin. For use when people are going to be away on extended trips.” He pulled out his phone and made a show of checking it. “Still no signal.”

  She didn’t look nearly as upset as he’d expected her to at the news.

  “Well, at least we have shelter and a little food.” She began counting and organizing. “Enough for today at least. I’ll start dinner, I’m starving.”

  They worked together in the kitchen, finding what they needed to open the can of vegetable soup and a pot to pour it in. Ren also brought in some snow to heat over the fire so they could have drinking water through her filtration bottle.

  “Tomorrow I’ll go out and set some traps. See if I can catch us some food. Or there must be a river nearby since there are fishing poles in the corner.”

  “Do you think a storm is still coming in?”

  He nodded. “The heaviness in the air when it’s this cold? Definitely more snow. We might be trapped here for a few days.”

  He was hoping the thought of being trapped would push her toward wanting to make a call. But he was beginning to believe her when she said she didn’t have anyone to call. Maybe she and Freihof had a no-contact pact in situations like this.