And he had every intention of taking her straight to his trailer and tucking her in bed—his bed. Granted there wasn’t much in that trailer, but it was his, and he wanted her there. He’d made the decision to stop running from what was between them, and once he made a decision, he stood his ground. Yesterday proved to him that the only way he and Shay could hide what they felt from family and friends was to completely avoid each other—and they were too good together for him to want to.
Caleb turned down the dark dirt path leading to the Hotzone and had driven about half a mile to the gates when he spotted a vehicle on the left shoulder of the road.
He glanced at Shay. “This is private property, and I don’t know that car. I better check it out.” He stopped a couple of car lengths away from the vehicle and put the truck in Park. The absence of an obvious owner of the car set him on edge. Something was off here. “Remind me I need to make it a priority to put lights up along this path,” he murmured, reaching across Shay to grab the gun he kept in the glove box, when she pointed out the window.
“Caleb. Look.”
He sat up to find a petite female running toward the truck and waving her hands. “Help!”
Caleb grabbed his gun. “Stay here.” He shoved it in his waistband.
“A gun, Caleb?” Shay gasped.
He didn’t answer. He got out of the truck and headed toward the fortysomething woman. “What’s happening, ma’am?”
The woman screamed something he didn’t understand in Spanish and then said in English, “Help me.” She heaved out a breath, a cell phone in her hand. “My husband…my husband. Can’t…” She sobbed and dropped her phone. “Can’t get it to work.”
Caleb inched up on the woman, her face tear-streaked. “We get bad service out here.” He kept his voice low and even. “I’ll help you. Where’s your husband?”
“Dead! He’s not breathing. He’s by the car.” She fell to her knees and grabbed her phone. “Have to get help.”
Behind him, the truck door opened. He knew Shay—she’d want to help the woman. At this point, for all Caleb knew, the woman had brought her husband out here and killed him, and was still armed with the weapon. Crazier things had happened. He wasn’t letting Shay near her.
He held out his hand to Shay. “Not yet, Shay,” he ordered.
“Caleb—” she started to object.
“Not until I know exactly what’s going on,” he said, without taking his eyes off the woman. He knelt beside her. “What happened to your husband?”
She sobbed. “He…”
Caleb touched her arm. “What happened?”
She inhaled and let it out. “He was changing the tire, and he just fell over.” Her face crumbled. “He died.” The last word was a shriek.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Caleb was on his feet, tossing his keys to the dirt in front of Shay, so they wouldn’t accidentally hit her. “Drive ahead to the office and call 911 on the landline,” he yelled. “There should be someone there, but if not, the red key is the one you’ll need to get in.”
She grabbed them up and started running to the driver’s side of the truck. He faced the crying woman. “Keep trying 911,” he ordered. She kept crying. More forcefully he yelled, “Dial the phone if you want to save your husband.”
He didn’t wait to see if she would reply. Seconds counted with a heart-attack victim, which was what he was betting this was. Caleb took off running toward the couple’s car, dialing his phone at the same time, hoping his service would come through. It didn’t. Damn. He rounded the car and just as the woman had said, her husband—as he assumed the man to be—lay on his back, by the tire he had been trying to change.
As a trained medic, Caleb’s instincts kicked in and he went to work on the man. The man’s wife appeared above him, whimpering and screaming erratically, but he tuned her out and focused on the life he was trying to save. Finally, finally, he found a light pulse and leaned back, hands on his pants.
Damn it, he needed an ambulance. He could only do so much, and he worried about brain damage. The guy had been without a pulse too long. He was contemplating driving the man to the hospital when sirens sounded in the distance.
“Good girl, Shay,” he whispered, not at all surprised she’d come through.
Caleb pushed to his feet and ran toward the sound, to flag the ambulance and update the crew, when his cell phone rang on his belt. Of course. Now the tower worked. He snatched it up without looking at caller ID. “Stay where you are, Shay,” he said. “I’ll come to you.”
“Shay?” Kent said. “What the heck is Shay doing with you at the crack of dawn?”
Caleb opened his mouth to say “Jumping out of a plane at sunrise,” but it was too little, too late—the line was dead.
“Damn!” he said, punching the air. What was Kent doing calling him at this time of the morning? The ambulance screeched to a halt, and Caleb rushed to meet it. He had a life-or-death emergency to deal with before he took a beating from either Kent or Shay—or maybe both.
Sabrina reached for a donut. Her third. Shay felt a hint of fan-girl admiration for the other woman, who could not only chow down on sweets and look slim and trim, but also wrote a syndicated political column that Shay admired.
“The Aces don’t rattle easily,” Sabrina said. “They were in a war zone most of the last decade. And though they can’t talk about most of their missions, I know they were in dangerous territory, pretty much daily. What seems traumatic to us—” she raised her cup “—it’s just spilled coffee to them.”
Shay considered that statement. Caleb still felt like Caleb, but how could he be unchanged after living ten years under such intense pressure?
Sabrina continued, “They’re cool under pressure, and it makes the customers feel comfortable. Heck, I was terrified to jump at first, but I jump now.”
“Really?” Shay asked. “I’m not so keen on the idea.”
“I’m still not a big fan of jumping, unlike Jennifer, who’s an addict. But Ryan sweet-talks me past my nerves every now and then. So you’ve never jumped?”
“No,” Shay said quickly. “And I don’t plan on it, either. I’m taking flying lessons, though, and I’m enjoying it. I can deal with being in the driver’s seat where I’m in control. The idea of jumping out of a plane and not being sure the chute will open…no, thank you.”
Sabrina’s eyes lit. “That’s exactly how I feel.” She sipped her coffee. “Flying lessons, huh? That sounds intriguing. Where do you do something like that?”
“A small airfield in Round Rock,” she replied, and then without hesitation—Sabrina felt like one of those rare instant friends—she added, “You should come out and give it a whirl.” There was a pad and paper on the table, and Shay wrote down her number. “Call me and we’ll set it up.”
“I might just do that,” she said. “In fact, I probably will.” She looked thoughtful. “I wish Jennifer was here to meet you. She’s a vet and has a Sunday clinic. Although, you may be happy she’s not here. She’s always trying to fix Caleb up, afraid he feels out of place as the only single guy in the mix. I keep telling her she can’t just marry him off. Oh, man. You better beware. She’ll be planning your wedding before you know it. This may be worse than her attempts at blind dates on his behalf.”
Wedding. Shay gulped. Her and Caleb? “Oh, no,” Shay said, sitting up straighter. “We’re not… I mean…” Her shoulders slumped. “It’s complicated.”
Sabrina set her elbows on the table. “Isn’t it always?”
“My family raised him after his parents died,” she said. “I’m sort of like, well, his sister.”
“Oh,” Sabrina said, her cheeks flushing. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were…seeing each other. I mean when I saw you together, there was a connection. I guess I misread it.”
“You didn’t,” Shay said, hands wrapping around the coffee cup, her lashes lowering before lifting. “We’ve always battled an attraction. Now that he’s home…we’re trying to figure it out. But he and Kent, my brother, are close and—”
“Kent’s your brother?”
Shay frowned. “Yes. You know him?”
“No,” she said. “But he called three times this morning while I was answering the phone, trying to reach Caleb.”
“Oh, God,” Shay said, her heart kicking into a charge. “I don’t have my phone. What if something is wrong? I should call.” She started to get up and sat back down, queasy from worry and no sleep. “I can’t call. He’ll know I’m with Caleb at this early hour, and he’ll ask why and…” She pressed her hand to her head. “This isn’t going to work. My family is going to find out, and it’s going to be a disaster.”
Sabrina reached out and touched her arm. “Easy. I asked Kent if it was an emergency the last time he called, and he said no. He said Caleb knew what it was about.”
Shay relaxed a little. “No emergency. Thank you. This whole thing has me a nervous wreck. I shouldn’t be with Caleb, and I know it. I mean my family is his family. I can’t jeopardize that for him, but I’m selfish I think. I can’t seem to help myself. What does that say about me?”
“Shay,” Sabrina said, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this—I mean we just met—but…if you two have been pining for each other as long as it sounds like you have, across thousands of miles, how can you not explore what’s between you? Just keep it your secret for now. Then there is no family damage if it doesn’t work out.” She smiled. “Though you’d better be careful you two don’t ‘vibe’ too heavily as a couple in front of them. You two connect. It’s obvious.”
Which is what Caleb had said. They weren’t hiding what was between them. The family would figure it out. And they had to go see them all today.
Sabrina added, “That’s why I was confused when you first said you two were family.”
Caleb’s voice rumbled in the background, and Shay looked up to find him standing in the doorway, dressed in a green flight suit, his light brown hair wind-rumpled and sexy. “Ready to get some sleep?”
“Do we even have time?” she asked. “We have to be at my folks’ in a few hours.”
“We can snag an hour to keep us standing,” he said. “It’s better than nothing.”
The receptionist yelled from behind Caleb. “Caleb— Kent’s on the phone.”
Caleb’s expression didn’t change—if he was affected by the call, he didn’t show it. “I’ll call him back,” he called over his shoulder, and then added to Shay, “Let’s go get some rest.”
The receptionist called back. “He wants to talk to Shay.”
Shay stood up. “Kent knows I’m here?”
“Tell him I’ll get back to him,” Caleb told the receptionist.
Sabrina pushed to her feet. “I’ll leave you two to hash this out. Shay, I’ll call you about the flying lessons.” She quickly scooted out the door and Caleb let her.
“Caleb,” Shay demanded.
“Let’s go to the trailer and I’ll explain.”
“Explain now.”
“We’ll convince him.”
She pressed her hands to her face. “This is a mess.” Her hands fell away. “What were we thinking?”
Caleb stepped forward and settled his hands on her shoulders. “Shay, sweetheart, you’re exhausted, and exhaustion has a way of making things look bigger than they are. We’ll convince him. We can do it.”
She rested her head on his chest and hugged him. “I am so very tired, Caleb.”
“I know, baby,” he said, sliding his hand down her hair, and thinking how wonderful she felt in his arms. He tilted her head up, framed her face. “I’ll call Kent, and then we’ll go get some rest. I’ll convince him. He might know you, but I know him. Let’s go to the trailer first, though, because once I tell him what went down out here this morning, he’s going to talk my ear off. You can be resting.”
“Why would he even call you so early?”
“Knowing Kent,” he said, “he was up all night playing poker, and knew I had a morning jump, so he called to brag.”
She sighed. “That sounds like Kent. But call him now. I need you to call him now.”
One look at her determined stare and Caleb knew he wasn’t waiting until he got to the trailer. He grabbed the phone on the wall. Kent answered in two rings.
“What the hell is going on?” Kent asked. “Shay’s out there with you, and she’s not answering her phone. You won’t take my calls. Is there something you want to tell me, Caleb?”
Kent’s hot attitude gave a glimpse of what the future might hold, because it was clear Kent believed he and Shay were involved and he wasn’t happy. “Shay did something stupid and I promised I wouldn’t tell you about it if she skydived. But since she chickened out, I’ll tell you. She locked her keys in her car at her office. Which, of course, with that fancy car of hers, means I have to take her to the dealership to get another key later today. Though I hear you’re responsible for losing her spare keys.”
Shay smiled, because she knew that last part about Kent losing her spare keys would ring true and add validity to her excuse for being with Caleb. When all was said and done, Kent had confirmed that, yes, he’d been up playing poker all night and so had Shay’s parents, and her father had won big. He’d be taking Shay’s mother shopping on Kent’s dime. And now, to Shay’s utter dismay, Shay could tell that Kent had just asked to borrow money from Caleb.
When he finally hung up, Shay said, “I can’t believe he just did that.” She pressed her lips together and dared to say what she’d been thinking for a while now. “I think he has a gambling problem. He can’t even control himself in his own family environment.”
“Your dad probably thought Kent lost on purpose,” he said. “To give him money for the trip.”
“He makes a lot of money as a sales rep,” she said, “but he has no savings. Not a dime. I’m worried.”
Caleb drew her hand in his and pulled her to her feet. “I’ll talk to Kent about it,” he promised.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ve tried, but he won’t listen to me. He respects you. I think you might be able to get through to him.”
Caleb had a feeling he’d better have that talk before Kent found out about Shay and him, but he left that part out. “I’ll do my best,” he said. “But right now…I want you…in my bed. I’ve been thinking about it all morning.”
“To sleep,” she said playfully.
“Of course,” he replied innocently.
A few minutes later, they walked hand in hand across the grassy back field between the office and his trailer. “It’s nothing fancy, like your place.”
“My house isn’t fancy,” she argued.
“I like your place,” he said. “It looks like you, and it smells like you. And I happen to love how you smell.” He kissed her hand. “My trailer, on the other hand, is a hole in the wall that came furnished from the prior Hotzone owners. I haven’t bothered to do anything with it, because, once the Hotzone is past the new-business bumps, I plan to get something else. But I’ve spent more time in this hole the past two months than I’ve spent in one place in ten years. That makes it a castle.” He paused at his door and pulled it open, before waving her forward. “So welcome to my castle.”
Shay walked up the stairs and entered. Caleb shut the door and locked it, thinking they’d had enough surprises for one day. He turned to find Shay standing at the bar that separated the living area from a compact kitchen, holding a photo he had displayed of him and six other Aces in front of a plane.
He walked up beside her, and she glanced up at him. “Tell me about the man in this photo,” she said, looking up at him. “Which one?”
“You,” she said. “I want to know about you. About the man you were then.”
“I was the same man I am now.”
“I want to know who that is,” she said, “because I know you saw things and did things. Hard, horrible things that have to haunt you. Yet you stayed ten years.”
How did he explain the switch he could turn on and off, that allowed him to become a soldier separate from the man? The switch that kept him sane. “Most of my missions were top secret,” he said. “I can’t talk about them. But even if I could tell you, you don’t want to hear about it, any more than I would want to remember.”
“Then why keep doing it for ten years?”
“Someone has to do the ugly stuff,” he said.
“But everyone doesn’t decide it has to be them.”
“I’m not the kind of guy who can go to work and pretend there aren’t horrors worse than you ever imagined in this world,” he said. “I’m the guy who makes sure others can just pretend.”
She set the picture down. “I see.” She turned away.
“Wow, sweetheart,” he said, snagging her arm and turning her to face him. “What just happened?”
“Just promise me when you leave this time, you’ll say goodbye, Caleb,” she said, her voice shaking. “Because not saying goodbye—that was just not right. It hurt. And so did ten years of shutting me out. Don’t do it again.”
He pulled her close, stroked her hair away from her face. “Shay. I’m not going anywhere. I told you. I’m here to stay.”
“No,” she said. “You say that, but you’ll never be satisfied taking amateur jumpers out for entertainment, Caleb. I saw you today. Saving lives is natural to you. You’re one of the good guys, that’s clear. That’s something to be proud of. And I am. But you said so yourself—you didn’t really want to leave the Army. This life will get old, lack purpose, and you’ll reenlist.”
He tried not to smile because her reaction wasn’t just about being tired. She cared about him. Maybe she loved him. He was pretty damn sure he’d always loved her. “Were you aware, my little Shay, that the Hotzone is contracted to train a group of Special Ops candidates once a month? That I am, indeed, still very much involved with the Army?”
She blinked. “You are?”
“That’s right,” he said, and picked her up. “I don’t have to go anywhere but here to make a difference.” He carried her past the worn leather couch and chair, down the short hallway to the bedroom—just big enough for a bed and nothing else—and laid her down. He went down on the mattress. “Sleep. You’re going to be nervous enough facing your family. Some rest will help.” He brushed his lips over her forehead. “Unlike you, I never showered this morning. I’m going to take a quick one and I’ll join you.”
She sat up. “Don’t go. Shower before we leave.”
“If I don’t go shower now,” he said and winked, “you won’t get any sleep.”