* * * * *
“fine! go ahead and send the local sheriff up here to get me! he’ll tell you the same thing!” one of the major problems with a cell phone was you couldn’t slam it down when the situation called for it. just jabbing the off button was rather unsatisfying. loren glared at the little bit of technology and gave a short hiss.
“just who is trying to light your temper today?” loren jumped. christ! there had to be a law about a man moving so silently!
her coffee mug went rolling across the kitchen counter leaving a trail of steaming liquid behind. shoving the phone into her pocket, loren reached for a dishtowel to catch the spill before she had the added bonus of cleaning the floor to add to her morning.
rourke folded his arms across his chest and waited. loren was ignoring him.
her lips were pressed into a firm line as she mopped up the remains of her coffee. she rubbed at the counter ‘til it would have passed inspection before giving up and turning her eyes up to his.
“good morning, loren.”
she should have let the coffee spill onto the floor. cleaning would have been better than facing rourke campbell. there was a heat that rose up her spine every time she looked into the man’s face. the kind of heat that got a girl into trouble if she wasn’t smart enough to hightail it in the opposite direction.
the problem was, loren was stuck, stuck, stuck in the man’s house for the next six days. his lips lifted into a wide smile.
“i do believe you are blushing.”
loren snapped her teeth together before her mouth dropped open.
oh god! she was blushing. she could feel the heat exploding in her face while rourke’s smile widened.
“i’m just mad!”
“so, i heard.” but she was still blushing. “as much as i’d enjoy a visit from my father, maybe i should call and warn him before that call hits his office.”
“your father’s the local sheriff?”
“sheriff brice campbell of benton county. i call him dad.”
“oh.” loren felt the heat in her face slip away. they could talk about work. it was a nice, safe, sterile subject. “i’ve got a subpoena for court today and the witness center isn’t taking the quarantine any too serious. they think i should show up despite any fatal diseases i might be contaminated with.”
“well, my dad will be happy to set them straight. this area is sealed.” 29
“i imagine that’s normal, not just in response to the current problem.” that might not have been the wisest thing she could have said. loren watched the man in front of her as his face went as blank as a granite boulder. not even the hint of an emotion remained. loren felt her own lips twitch up into a grin.
“you want to know something, rourke campbell? my father was never an officer but he can do that face better than you.” rourke’s black eyebrows rose up but loren decided to finish her thought. “what do you think i am?
stupid? blind? or am i just expected to believe most people travel around in high-tech helicopters?”
loren snagged her coffee cup from the counter and headed for the coffeepot. if rourke campbell thought she’d play dumb for him then he was sadly mistaken. wherever they were, it was classified.
“you can relax, major. i’m not going to run my jaw, just don’t expect me to play the idiot who can’t see what’s in front of her face.” rourke didn’t just want the woman, now he was getting to like her. he didn’t have
a single use for a game-playing female. the frank honesty loren was slapping across his face suited him exactly right. “deal.” rourke pushed his frame away from the kitchen counter and poured his own coffee. he sent her a wink before striding out of the kitchen on confident feet.
loren let her breath out in a slow movement. she pulled another deep breath in and held it.
that had been brazen. tossing out a challenge like that to a man like rourke campbell could have landed her right in a pot of boiling water. instead the man had taken her at her word. that was nothing to sneeze at. the idea that rourke campbell considered her word trustworthy, hit her as a compliment.
he wasn’t a man who placed his faith in the undeserving. the same nagging idea to trust the man came floating across her brain. loren snorted with distaste. that was something that she could never allow to happen.
wandering out the front door, she took in the morning. rourke campbell sure did live in paradise. the huge a-frame house was as sturdy as it was practical. they were surrounded on all sides by forest. the trees stretched up the mountains that were in view. it looked like there wasn’t another living soul anywhere to be found.
the cool mountain air was a little chilly as it hit her thin californian skin. hugging her arms close, loren took another sip of her coffee. a duffel bag had appeared with her clothing in it, but her wardrobe wasn’t up to the mountaintop location.
loren shrugged. she’d just have to wear layers. the laundry room might become her best friend, but this was only a limited stay. for now, she intended to enjoy it. moving away from the house, she wandered toward the three helicopters that sat rather silently in the clearing in front of the house.
now what kind of a man had combat helicopters sitting in his front yard? it was extremely strange the way the black machines were just there. well, it was all probably just a precaution against an outbreak of ebola tai forest.
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she should have thought of that sooner. no one just took their helicopters home with them. not even officers.
well, there was a bright side to the machines being there. her son was in heaven. toby was currently sitting in the front of one of the machines with a laptop computer balanced on his knees and wires running down his legs.
chris’ face appeared in the open doorway of the aircraft. the mug slipped from her grip and smashed on the rocky forest floor. loren didn’t care. chris muttered something and toby lifted his head to stare at the man. her son quickly returned to his computer and chris lifted his face to catch her watching them. his mouth twisted into a sneer before he resumed talking to toby.
her hand was frozen over her throat as loren fought the urge to throw herself between them. she couldn’t, mustn’t do that. it was toby’s choice. it had to be toby’s choice because it was her fault chris was his father.
it was horribly amazing the way her adolescent mistakes were affecting someone else’s life. marrying chris had been immature at the best. too young to know better, she’d followed her heart right into his arms. but her son was a shiny blessing that loren would never regret.
another shiver crossed her chest and loren abruptly turned around and headed back to the house. no moping allowed! that was one of her absolute rules. no self-pity. no limits. and no men!
all she needed was some good exercise. toby was a great kid and far smarter than she was. he’d make a good choice. loren raised her face to the morning sun and silently prayed.
please god, let him be smarter than me.
* * * * *
“oh, yeah. now that’s a sweet bitch if ever i saw one.” “grade a ass.”
that sort of talk from his men wasn’t really something rourke took extra notice of. men, his men were rough or they got transferred out of his unit.
there wasn’t any room
for a man that might be too soft. it was just a side effect of their training that none of them knew a thing about manners.
there wasn’t any need for social niceties out here anyway. there were never women allowed on the compound. except today there was one.
snapping his head around, rourke fixed his attention on his men. both rangers had their field glasses out and aimed at the slope of the mountain in front of them.
“i tell you, chris is a dumbass. i’d do her a few more times before getting rid of her.”
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rourke snapped his head around and caught loren making her way down the slope. she cut through the forest with steady speed. her top was marked with sweat from her collar to her waist. she broke through the trees and continued running ‘til she
hit the house.
loren didn’t let her body quit ‘til she heard the screen door hit the doorjamb behind her. then she bent over and braced her hands onto her knees and tried to breathe. oh yeah. there was nothing like running to get your mind off of anything and everything.
it was an exercise of will to keep herself from collapsing. there wasn’t any room let
in her head for emotion turmoil.
a solid grip caught her forearm and spun loren around like a top. she stumbled before catching her balance. rourke campbell’s face was etched with anger as he waited for her to steady herself.
“for someone who claimed not to be stupid, you’re sure acting like it.”
“what exactly is your problem, campbell?” jerking her arm out of his hold, loren propped it onto her hip.
he didn’t like her calling him by his surname, but there was a bigger problem to handle first. “parading around in that excuse for clothing just might get you raped. those men out there aren’t gentle in the least! you’re lucky one of the perimeter guards didn’t think you were a gift from the tooth fairy.”
“if your men are really that barbaric, you have my sympathy. but it’s your problem, major.” loren used her fingers to comb her hair back out of her face. rourke’s emerald eyes were sharp as they sliced at her but she wasn’t going to swallow it. “what’s the big deal, anyway? are trying to tell me you guys don’t run? i sure thought i saw you in a pair of jogging shorts this morning.”
“that’s very different, loren.” rourke let his words out very carefully. he was mad. there was a surge of emotion traveling through his body that threatened to overpower every last ounce of control he processed. one of his men could have dragged her to the forest floor and he never would have known. he wouldn’t let her expose herself to that kind of danger again.
“because i’m a woman?” his head gave a sharp nod and loren felt her own temper heat up, but this was a battle she was rather used to fighting.
women weren’t exactly welcome in the fire academy either.
“look campbell, my excuse for clothing just happens to be the fire department approved workout suit. the guys wear it and so do us girls. if jogging is good for you, then it’s good for me. i’m not letting my endurance drop during this little vacation.” raising her hand up, loren stopped rourke from interrupting her. “and if there’s any part of this mountain that you’d rather i stay away from, then you’d better get around
to explaining the rules to me.”
“this isn’t a democracy, loren, i’m in command here.” 32
“what you are is a chauvinist! you can wear shorts but i can’t?” loren shook her head in denial. “sorry pal, but i’m fresh out of potato sacks!”
“fine! you can wear the shorts.” she was right. her dark blue shorts were similar, if not the same as his own green ones. rourke pulled a solid breath into his lungs and searched for control. she didn’t understand the sharp edge his men were balanced on. nor did she understand the harsh reality of his life.
that nagging thought that had hit him this morning was certainly gaining strength. his life wasn’t one a man could share. the plain fact was loren didn’t belong here. all the sexual attraction in the world couldn’t change that fact.
for now, he’d better get his ideas out of her pants because it was his fault she was on the compound. that made her safety his sole responsibility.
“you jog with me. sunup. don’t be late.” rourke dismissed her. loren watched the way he turned his body with razor-sharp precision and then he left. his withdrawal was more than physical—it hit her emotionally as well. she’d always been so very aware of him, that right then his dismissal felt very much like rejection.
pressing her lips firmly together, loren stared at his bedroom door. she should be happy, at least relieved. the man was finally off her tail and by the feel of things he meant to keep it that way.
fine… good… that’s way it had to be. so why wasn’t she feeling relieved?
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loren reached for her toes and ground her teeth together as her muscles ached. oh…rourke campbell was sure a sore loser! stretching forward she couldn’t help but laugh. to be completely correct, she was the one who was sore but rourke campbell’s pride was so large she couldn’t understand how the man walked without his ego tipping him over.
running with the man had been a pure battle of wills. loren wasn’t sure if she’d won, but she was still standing.
shaking out her legs, she took a slow turn around the house. running so hard this morning had turned her legs into jell-o. she had escaped the muscle fatigue by diving into her computer reports and emails but after sitting at a computer most of the day, the abused muscles of her legs had contracted and turned stiff.
well, a little walking would solve that dilemma. the sun was sinking below the forest now. all the trees were bathed crimson-gold.
loren pulled the fresh air into her lungs and savored it. the smog in the los angeles basin must have made her extra- sensitive to the crisp smell of the mountain air.
because it even tasted good.
“your conditioning is good.”
loren managed to keep her smirk inside her mouth as she jumped around to confront her company. the people around here didn’t seem to make contact with the forest floor when they walked. that or she needed her hearing tested.
“but then, any female who can become a firefighter would have to know something about endurance.”
a pair of emerald green eyes proceeded to run down her body. loren took in the man they belonged to. he was in prime condition just like rourke. as he raised his face she noticed the same cut to his jaw that rourke had. but the way his green stare inspected her lacked the spark of electricity that her body felt every time rourke looked her over.
it was really annoying to discover that she had rourke’s stare committed to her memory.
“you wear your emotions on your face.”
“most people do.” but that was a very strange comment. in fact, if loren was any judge, she’d say the man was critiquing her. there was a nagging little need crossing her brain to straighten her back in response.
“i’m loren, and you are?” loren extended her hand with her greeting but her company simply stared at her hand. he kept his own hands hooked into his belt. his
34
eyes dropped to her hand before returning to her face as he waited to see what she would do.
“his name is jared.”
the pulse of electricity came with just his voice. loren folded her arms over her chest and tried to force her body into calmness. her nerves refused to listen. she couldn’t hear rourke coming up behind her, but she could feel him. his face came into view but he was looking at her companion instead of her.
“he’s my brother.”
“no kidding.” two pairs of green eyes shot straight to her face but loren simply smiled. “i think i’ll just get myself moving before the testosterone levels get to me.”
jared considered loren as she moved back toward the house and rourke narrowed
his eyes. his brother finished looking loren over and raised an amused looked at his sibling.
“careful, rourke, i’d say you’re jealous.”
“we’re under quarantine, jared.”
jared grinned and slid another look at the house. “so, don’t kiss me.” rourke raised a fist and sent it toward his brother.
“hey, if you two are gonna fight, can i watch?” toby leaned over the porch railing and smiled.
rourke yanked his arm back and turned toward his young houseguest. guilt sprang up in response to letting the young teen witness his rather questionable behavior. jared tipped his head back and laughed. rourke curled his fingers back into a fist.
“you guys are cool.” toby came down the stairs and grinned at them. loren did an immediate about-face as her son walked toward jared. toby stopped in front of them and studied them with his blue eyes. it was an intense scrutiny that drove home the kid’s intelligence level even if it was encased in the lanky body of a teenager. “you know, because there are four of you with green eyes in your family, it throws the average of psychics with green eyes off. makes the scale look like green eyes are a factor
in the level of psychic effectiveness, but you have to discard that kind of data when
more than one subject comes from the same gene pool.”
“toby…” rourke couldn’t quite finish his question. the possibility that the kid had crossed into his personal information was too much of a personal disaster for him to absorb.
“you know, i could really show the army some things on keeping their files encrypted. if you don’t keep tabs on the really hot hackers, you’re sitting ducks in cyberspace.” jared shot his hand out and hooked it into the kid’s shirtfront. rourke grabbed his brother’s wrist to keep his brother from connecting with toby’s mind.
35
“let go of my son!” loren didn’t wait to see if rourke’s brother would obey her. the air was heavy with a hidden threat and she reacted to it on an instinctive level. she wasn’t sure just what she was trying to protect her child from, but she launched herself
at jared campbell before he finished whatever he was doing to toby.
the man fell back as her body hit him. they went down onto the forest floor and her body snapped as the full current of electricity surged through her.
her vision went black and loren sucked in a great gasp of air as she fought off unconsciousness. she struggled against the blackness as she forced her lungs to keep working. her eyelids felt as heavy as bricks as she tried to lift them.
“aw, mom. i wanted to feel it.” whatever “it” was, loren couldn’t get her body to stop quivering. it was a good thing she’d pushed both jared and herself onto the ground because her legs simply wouldn’t have supported her. the muscles were twitching and pulsing in an uncontrolled frenzy of movement.
“what is it?” loren used her temper to control her body. she shoved her legs beneath her and stood up. the world swam before her eyes but she forced herself to stand. pointing her eyes at her son, she raised a single finger at him.
“what exactly are you trying to discover now?”
“but, mom… i might never get another chance to meet one of the psychic units. they’re way exclusive and totally classified. besides, it wasn’t really hacking. dr. jasper said i could look at classified stuff now
‘cause i work for him.” toby shuffled his feet and shrugged his shoulders in response to his mother’s narrow look. loren knew that look all too well.
there was a definite knack to raising a child with toby’s intelligence level. while a normal kid would experiment with simple rule testing, toby had to challenge the very boundaries of his nation.
“tobias, i swear, i’m going to send you to an amish family for a year!
there won’t
be so much as a single volt of electricity for you to get your paws on, much less a computer!” loren watched as a kaleidoscope of color began swirling around her head. the more she looked at the colors the less her body hurt.
“but, mom, these guys are really cool. you should see the file on their mother. her psychic rating is off the scale.”
“put a cork in it, kid.” jared snarled his order and beat at the dirt that decorated his pants from their fall. loren held her hand up toward the man.
this was a parent’s job and she’d do it.
“toby, there’s this idea known as privacy. digging around in peoples’ personal information makes them cranky. when it’s classified information, it makes them mad.”
“i’m not mad. but i’m going to rip your memory apart.” loren turned on her heel and faced rourke’s brother. “my son has clearance for classified information but that doesn’t mean he has a bit of sense. judgment is something that only maturity can develop. you must not be a parent or you’d understand how kids can be sometimes.”
“i have a son.”
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jared campbell issued that with pure pride. loren watched him before looking at her son. “maybe you should find out how he did it first.”
“meaning what?” jared campbell crossed his arms over his chest exactly like
rourke did most of the time.
“well, if a fourteen year old can find those files, sort of makes sense to find out how
he did it. unless you want to take the chance of someone else doing the same thing.”
“excellent idea.”
relief flooded her because loren wasn’t exactly sure just how she was planning on dealing with the man if he made another try for toby.
desperation had a way of keeping a person running on adrenaline. once the threat was gone, so was that amazing little chemical.
loren just didn’t understand it. for some reason she was completely bone-tired. her eyelids were trying to fall closed and she couldn’t let that happen. toby was all she had and she couldn’t let anything happen to him.
where her mind might have been determined, her body wasn’t able to keep up. loren couldn’t stop the shrilling colors of that kaleidoscope as it surrounded her and turned her entire world brilliant shades of color.
she forgot about keeping her eyelids open. they slipped closed just as her body collapsed onto the forest floor with a boneless grace that only unconsciousness could produce.