Playing For Keeps (Montana Men) (32 page)

Excitement, he thought. Pure excitement of what was yet to
come. It was like it was happening all over again. That day, that oh so special
day when he attacked Lacey. His mind journeyed back to the exact minute he
walked inside Danger’s house, the moment he smelled her terror, the moment he
shot her, cut her. She’d been pregnant, too, though not showing the way Karen
was now.

It
had been one of those flawless, sweet afternoons when all his plans worked out
to perfection. He didn’t care how pregnant the woman was, nothing got in the
way of his fun.

“Yes!”
The sheriff finally headed out. He watched Karen turn and go back inside the
house. Smitt grinned. He’d walk right in—just like he did the day he fucked up
Lacey. “I’m coming for you, Karen. Coming for you. I’m going to fuck you, my
darling, until there’s no breath left in you, then I’ll fuck you some more.”

* * * *

Karen
set the coffee cup aside and turned from the kitchen sink when she heard the
soft steps coming from the front of the house. “I’m back here,” she said,
smiling, and wiping her hands off on a dishcloth. “I knew you’d be back.”

The smile froze on her face when she saw Smitt standing
there. Her gaze slid over him, noting his nakedness, the way his big cock jutted
in readiness. He’d taken the time to strip off his clothes somewhere between
the front door and making his way into the kitchen.

Calmly, she opened the drawer to her right, pulled out a
butcher knife, and waved it in the air at him. “Don’t come any closer.”

Smitt arched a brow and crossed the room with a cocky
swagger. He was on her in a heartbeat. Twisting the knife from her hands, he
tossed it in the sink. “How ‘bout I just come…inside you? The last woman here
pulled a knife on me and I shot her twice in the chest.” He slid his hands over
her breasts and squeezed them. “Tell me, my darling wife, shall I shoot you, or
fuck you?”

She curled her fingers round his thick cock. “What took
you so long?”

Smitt worked her hand up and down the length of his engorged
cock and moaned. “I had to make sure the fucker was gone.”

Karen grinned and cupped her husband’s tight balls and
gently squeezed. “Fuck me. I’ve been waiting hours for Danger to leave.”

Smitt ripped her oversize shirt down the middle and rubbed
her swollen belly. “I thought he’d never go away.” He pressed a kiss to her
belly. “So, the sheriff still has no suspicion?”

“About which part?”

“That this baby’s mine?” He licked her stomach, stopping
at the edge of her pubic line. “You taste so sweet. He has no clue I put this
brat in you?”

“None.”

“And the other? He still believes you’re his lawful wife?”

“Absolutely. Danger has no idea I was already married to
you when he wed me.” She laughed. “What a joke on all three of them.”

Smitt frowned. “What joke? What are you talking about?”

“Their divorce?”

“Lacey and Danger’s?”

“Yeah.” She grinned and thrust her fingers through his
hair. “You’ll be so proud of me. The papers aren’t real. Belinda made certain
the ones the attorney drew up were destroyed and the ones sent to Lacey were
fakes.”

“Who the hell is Belinda? I don’t like so many outsiders
knowing our business.”

Karen grinned and smoothed a hand down the side of his
face. “Belinda isn’t an outsider. She’s my cousin. We’re lucky she works for
Lacey’s attorney. She saw to it that the divorce papers were never filed.
Legally, Lacey’s still Danger’s wife.”

“But she married the Texan?”

“Oh, yes. In the eyes of the law, she’ll be a bigamist.
She’ll never be able to produce legitimate papers proving she’s divorced. I
stole the fake copy out of one of the boxes she left here, and burned it along
with Danger’s copy. She has no divorce papers, real or fake. I promise you,
charges will be pressed against her. I’ll insist, and you know how persistent I
can be.”

“The preacher who married her and the Texan?”

“Another one of my cousins who knows how to disappear.
He’s gone, took off for parts unknown.”

“And your marriage to Danger?”

“Doesn’t exist,” she said, biting his lower lip. “I
stashed the marriage license and made certain it wasn’t filed, so Lacey can’t
prove Danger’s married to me. Hell, Danger can’t prove he’s married to me. The
phony preacher you hired to wed me and him took a long dive off a mountainside
while skiing in Vale. My brother took care of that problem. There’s no one to
say the marriage exists, except you and me. There simply is no record of it,
not until we need it, and we won’t need it until the sheriff’s dead and
buried.”

Smitt rubbed his hands together in glee. “You are one evil
bitch.”

“I know,” she said in a low voice and rubbed his cock.
“You love it. I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when the three of
them find out their lives and marriages are royally fucked. And
ooh,
get this—Lacey’s pining for another
baby. The studly Texan told Danger they want to start a family as soon as
possible.”

Smitt snickered. “I bet the sheriff’s none too happy ‘bout
that.”

She laughed and rubbed circles round her nipples until
they were tight buds. “He hates it. He’ll hate it even more if Lacey returns
with another baby in her belly only to learn she’s still
his
wife.
Ooh,
what will
he do then? Maybe he’ll flip out and kill the Texan. Yeah. We could plan that,
couldn’t we, murder the Texan and blame it on Danger?”

Smitt dropped to his knees in front of her and pressed his
mouth against her warm pussy. “We’ll see, my darling. For now, let’s just sit
back and watch their lives go to shit. We’ll destroy them. I swear to you, all
three of them will die, just like they destroyed us, we’ll take everything from
them, then we’ll kill them. It’ll be the best day ever.”

Karen laughed. “And once Danger’s dead, my son will
inherit everything.”

“Our
son,” Smitt
said softly, kissing her belly. “Our son will inherit thousands and thousands
of acres of rich timber land with all the mineral rights intact, and we’ll be
his guardians. We’ll be millionaires, Karen darling.” He rose to his feet and
lifted his wife in his arms. “I’m going to fuck you in Danger’s bed. How long
will he be away?”

“All day. He’s catching up on paperwork at the office. We
have the entire day, my love.”

He turned and carried her down the hall, paused and kicked
open the bedroom door. Laughing, he crossed the spacious room. Smitt sat her on
the edge of the king-sized bed, taking the time to look around. “I’ve been
dying to get in his bed since I first saw Lacey sleeping here.”

“You should have killed her then.”

“Where would the fun be in that? I was busy jacking off.
Besides, I wanted her to suffer, to know the agony of losing a child. She
helped take our babies out of the cave. Yeah, I wanted her to know what it felt
like to have her child ripped away.”

Karen’s eyes glittered. “And did she? Did you make her
feel the pain?”

“You know I did,” Smitt said. “Where’s Jared? Where’s your
brother? He should be keeping an eye on the sheriff, keeping him out of our
hair.”

“He got called away on assignment.”

“Did he?” Smitt pushed her down, yanked off her pants and
crawled on top of her. In one smooth thrust, he buried his cock deep inside
her. “What’s he doing since he no longer has Lacey to spy on when she’s
stripping for a bath in her tent?”

Karen wrapped her legs around his waist and groaned with
pleasure. “Who cares? He did what he needed to do to help our cause, even went
by your last name and the fuckers still didn’t catch on. They’re all so stupid.
You, my sexy husband, are brilliant.” She lifted her hips to meet his hard
thrusts.

“I know, but your plan to have Jared steal Lacey’s panties
was very clever, my wife.”

“Mmm, yes, it was a smart idea, but you suggested he watch
her bathe. Jared seeing the tattoo on her thigh was perfect. When he showed the
panties to Danger and mentioned her little butterfly, it was all the proof
Danger needed that she was fucking my brother.”

Smitt clenched his jaw and lifted her hips higher. “I
wanna fuck her. I wanna fuck her right here, just like I’m fucking you. I
need
her. I need the special release
she’ll give me.”

Karen cupped the sides of his face and smiled. “And you
shall have it, my love. You can have her as many times as you want. I’ll film
it, just like with all the others. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” he said, answering with a throaty noise. “I’m going
to cut that tattoo off her and save it for a souvenir.”

“Good. Lacey’s returning to Rimrock, just as you
demanded.”

Smitt grunted and rolled with her. “Ride me, baby.
Harder.” He threw back his head and moaned his release. Holding her tight, he
laid there, his chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. “Will she be
alone?”

Karen walked her fingertips across his chest and toyed with
one flat nipple. “The Texan will be with her. They’re going to stay at the old
farmhouse.”

“At Danger’s grandparents’ place?”

“Yes. They’ll be miles from anybody.”

Smitt lifted her off him and rolled to his side, facing
her. “I’m going to gut that fucker real slow. I’m going to play with his
entrails and make Lacey watch while I do it.”

Karen clapped her hands. “I wanna watch. I wanna watch
everything you do to him.”

He tugged her into his arms and kissed her. “Oh, you
shall, my love. And you’ll watch me fuck Lacey until my cock grows limp, then
I’ll cut her throat and watch her bleed. She’ll have a special place at our
table.”

“It’ll be perfect.” She giggled. “Perfect.”

“No,” Smitt disagreed. “It won’t be perfect until Kaycee
is seated across from her, her belly big and fat from my babies. Then, you and
I shall dine in royal splendor at the head of the table. We’ll drink wine and
fuck in the middle of our perfect table.”

Karen wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled him.
“Can I kill Danger, then? I wanna cut out his heart. He was hailed a hero for
discovering our cave. He got so much praise and glory for taking our babies out
of it. I hate him!”

“But, of course, Karen darling. I insist you have your
fun, too.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s shower, then I’ll snack on you.”

Karen snickered. “I want you to fuck me in the other
bedroom, too, the one where the Texan screwed Lacey. Danger hates that room. He
knows that’s where Lacey slept with the man. Danger wanted to replace the bed,
but I insisted we keep it. I so love that bed.”

Smitt snickered. “Sure you do. You found my little gift I
left for you?”

“I did. And you say I’m evil.”

“You are, my darling, Karen. You are.”

“I know.” She licked her lips. “And you love it.”

“Yes, I do,” he said huskily. “You’re perfect for me,
darling Karen. Perfect.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

In recent years, anyone in the government,
certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA, or recently, in again, Clint's film, In
the Line of Fire, the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president.

~Charlton Heston

McLean, Virginia

CIA Headquarters

February 18, Wednesday

Thirty-four hours after the assassination…

“Listen
up, people,” Sam said, marching back and forth the length of the CIA meeting
room. “It’s been almost thirty-five hours since the first lady was tragically
gunned down. No one seems to have a clue who did it or why. It’s been almost
that long since Duel reported in, which gives me cause to worry.” She paused
and searched the haggard faces of her team. “I know you’re all tired. I’m
tired, too, but we’ve got to do better than this. No one has seen or heard from
Jayla Ross that I’m aware of, nor Flayme. I’m assuming Duel reached my
secretary and has left to take her to a safe place, but I don’t know it for a
fact. We have missing people, and that curdles my blood.

Angie
Hillcrest, filling in temporarily in Flayme’s absence, fiddled with her pen and
steno-pad. “Do you have any idea where Duel might have taken Flayme?”

“No.”
Sam thought she probably looked as mortified as she felt. She should know where
Duel intended to take her secretary, but things had been so crazy at the time.

“I
do,” Travis said, filling in the sudden quiet.

Sam
turned to him. Travis, bless him, always came to her rescue. She smiled
gratefully. “Where?”

“He
has a cabin near Denver, just off Interstate 70 West. It’s isolated. He knows
the area. He’d want to be in a place where he knows the terrain. I think he’d
take her there.”

Sam
thought about it and came to the same conclusion. Frowning, she agreed and eyed
the faces in the room. “Where’s Neil? Has anyone seen him this morning?”

“Ooh,
I saw him earlier at the coffee,
but that was a couple of hours ago,” Angie said. “I haven’t seen him since.
Maybe he’s in his office.”

“Would
you check, please?” Sam asked. “I need to speak to him.”

Once
the room cleared, Travis turned to Sam. “You’re wasting your time having any
kind of conversation with Neil. The man has a one track mind.”

“I’m
not planning on having a conversation with him. I’m firing his ass.”

Travis frowned. “You can’t fire him because he’s sleeping
with Flayme or walks around with a woody. He’ll file a complaint.”

Sam nibbled on a thumbnail. “Damn it, I don’t trust him,”
she stated, unable to hold back her rage. “The man’s a creep. He’s a liability
we can’t afford right now.”

“You still can’t fire him.”

“I’ll transfer him to another department, then. I want him
off this team.”

Angie stuck her head in the door. “He’s not in his
office.”

“Shit.” Sam grabbed her coat and purse. “See if you can
reach him on his cell. Travis and I will be back in a couple of hours.” She
shrugged into her coat and looped her purse strap onto her shoulder. “If Neil
shows up, tell him I said he better stay right here until I return!”

Angie grinned. “Yes, Madam Director. Oh, you better not
leave just yet. That agent, the one we like who works on the enemy side, Rydge
Scott? He called, said to turn on the television. The president’s going live in
about fifteen minutes.”

“Great!” Sam dropped her purse on the table and shrugged
out of her coat. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long day.”

Angie nodded and pushed up her glasses. “I’ll make fresh
coffee.”

* * * *

Somewhere in Nebraska

February 18, Wednesday

Forty-one hours after the assassination…

“All
right,” Flayme said in as calm a voice as she could muster, “maybe you’re a
human dynamo or the Energizer bunny, but
I
have needs.”

Duel
slanted his gaze toward her, then returned his attention to the stretch of
snow-packed highway.

God,
she wished he’d stop flashing those green eyes at her. Her body went into
meltdown every time he cast them her way. She’d never in her entire life felt
like ripping the pants off a man and having her way with him—until she met this
one.

There
was simply no way. The man was a lone wolf, an outlaw who made his own rules
along the way and damn the consequences. Trouble liked him. And he liked
trouble. She’d be an utter fool to get mixed up with him. Hah! The way her body
heated from his smoldering glances, she was already involved with him. It was
just a question of time before she betrayed how she felt about the agent.

Hell,
her womb clenched with urgent need anytime he blasted her with one of his
sizzling looks. Her breasts ached. Her nipples tightened and tingled. She was a
mass of quivering hormones. And holy hell! Ripples of electricity sizzled
through her blood, igniting sparks of heat along the way. Her body felt hot and
ready to rumba. She’d never been much of a dancer. She wasn’t one for playing
games, yet she’d been labeled a game-player.

What
the hell? Did she really give a crap what this man thought of her? Might as
well admit it, she realized she did care. However, she didn’t like the hold he
held over her emotions or the feelings he aroused inside her, not when it was
clear he had nothing but contempt for her.

As
much as she hated to think it, she had a bad feeling she’d end up a notch on
the cowboy’s belt. He wouldn’t give a damn if he broke her heart to pieces.
Worse, she figured she’d go to slaughter a willing lamb. That caused her
hackles to rise and her claws to erupt.

And
she turned into this fierce kitten she didn’t recognize at all.

“Just so we’re clear on the subject,” he retorted. “I have
needs, too.”

Flayme snorted. “I wasn’t talking about
those
kinds of needs.”

The devil actually grinned at her, more like a wolfish
leer, all bared teeth. Silly her, she fell just that much farther into slippery
territory.

“How do you know what kind of needs I was referring to?”
He lifted a dark brow.

She bit the inside of her jaw to keep from hissing like a
maddened cat. She was not going to let this man walk all over her and leave her
squashed like a bug beneath his shitty boot heels. “You’re a man, by your very
nature, a sexual beast. A stallion. A stud. A
horn
dog. Whatever the hell you wanna label it. You wanna fuck,”
she said bluntly. “It isn’t gonna be me you screw or screw over, so you can
just keep that well-oiled zipper in place and turn those sultry bedroom eyes on
some hapless woman with a brain the size of a flea’s asshole.”

He laughed. “God, you’re priceless. Is there nothing you
won’t say?”

“Nope. I don’t believe in pulling my punches.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, doll baby,” he said with a touch
of sarcasm. “You’d be easy enough…if I wanted you. And my zipper isn’t oiled.
Hell, it’s dry as the bone yard.”

“Hah!” Flayme counted to ten, then turned a saccharin
smile upon him. “You want me, but you have this kind of Code of the West thing
going on where it’s dishonorable for you to touch me. It’s the only reason you
haven’t made a move.”

Duel lifted a brow. “Are you giving me the green light? If
so, I’ll toss the damn code book. The thing gets in the way anyway.”

“No! I’m just saying you think I’m an easy lay willing to
lie down with any male who has a hard-on, but you keep away because I belong to
another man.”

“I don’t think you’re an easy lay.”

“Yes, you do. But guess what? I don’t care what you think.
I’m not interested in you, either. I wanna eat and pee and not necessarily in
that order. If you don’t stop for a while and let me out of this tin can on
wheels so I can stretch my legs, I promise, you’ll be very sorry.”

Duel frowned. “What are you gonna do, break another
window?”

She ignored the mockery in his voice. “I might.” Flayme
glared out the passenger side window, lifted her gaze to the bleak, gray sky
overhead, then returned it to the desolate snow-covered scenery.

Fields of withered corn stalks stretched endlessly on the
left and the right side of the highway, leafless trees looked forlorn and
naked. “I’m sick of snow! Mostly, I’m sick to death of looking at dead, mangled
corn stalks,” she said, her voice rising. “Couldn’t you at least have found a
scenic route? I wanna go home, back to the bright lights and the hustle and
bustle of D.C.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, there’s little else to see in this part
of Nebraska but dead, mangled corn stalks, at least this time of year. Hold on
until we get to my cabin. Colorado will steal your breath away. The Rockies?
Pike’s Peak? They’re a natural high you never come down from.”

“I doubt that.”

“Have you ever been there?”

“Colorado? No,” she replied. “And I have no desire to see
it now. I told you, I wanna go home.”

“You can’t go home.”

“Then I wanna go somewhere they don’t grow corn! Right
now!” She burst into tears.

“Shit!
Don’t
cry.” He moaned as if he was the one in total misery. “Don’t cry,” he said
softer, his eyes filling with something she hadn’t seen before.

Tenderness? For her? Hah! The man detested her.

“I’ll pull over as soon as I see an exit,” he continued,
“and you can walk around a bit. Stop crying.”

“Don’t tell me to stop crying, Mr. Hard-Nose, Agent
Remington,” she bellowed, swiping angrily at her tears. Damn it! She hated
crying. It was a sign of weakness and she didn’t like revealing any type of flaw.
“I’ve earned the right to cry,” she said, in direct contrast to her thoughts.
“I’ve earned the right to cuss and pull out my hair if I want to. And right
now, I want to.” She jabbed her chest to make her point. “So don’t tell me what
to do. You’re the worst bodyguard I’ve ever met.”

Duel laughed. “And how many bodyguards have you had in
your lifetime?”

“A few.”

His brows rose. “Do tell.”

“I’d rather not if it’s all the same to you.”

“It isn’t. I need to know everything about you if I’m to
do my job right.”

“Tough!”

His face set with temper. He took the first available
exit. Stopping the car, he killed the engine. Duel sat there with his hands
wrapped around the steering wheel clenching his jaw. He drew a sharp breath and
slowly released it. “I’m kind of partial to your hair,” he said huskily. “I’d
really like it if you didn’t pull it out.”

She stared at him, dumbfounded.
He liked her hair?
Huh. Those were the last words she’d expected to
hear from a man who was obviously furious with her. Flayme unhooked her
seatbelt and turned to face him. “Honestly, I didn’t think you liked one damn
thing about me.”

“Where did you get that impression?” He frowned as if he
couldn’t believe she thought he didn’t like her.

“Why did we stop?” she asked, sniffing, then looked
around. There was nothing here. Just another single picnic table and a trash
barrel half filled with snow. Bits of weathered paper tumbled across the icy
ground as if trying to escape their glacial prison. How depressing.

Fresh tears filled her eyes and spilled down her face. No
matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop crying. Her lips trembled
and she knew she must look like a wild woman, but he didn’t know since he
refused to look at her. Instead, he stared straight ahead, his grip tighter on
the wheel.

“You said you needed to…stretch your legs.”

“Well Jesus, Duel, can’t you ever find a place with
bathrooms?” She burst into another bout of tears.

“Not lately. Hey…” He mumbled something that sounded like
“Fuck it,” then turned abruptly and pulled her across the center island.
Cradling her in his arms, he said soothingly, “I know it’s been rough, baby. I
never planned for things to be so tough for either of us.”

“I wanna go home,” she whispered, lifting her
tear-drenched face to his. “Please? Just turn the SUV around and take me back
home.”

*
* * *

Duel brushed a stray curl behind her ear and rubbed her
back. “I wish I could, doll baby. I know you’re scared and confused, but I
can’t protect you there. There are too many unpredictable equations, too
wide-spread an area to track movement. One gunman, I might be able to handle,
but what if there were three or even more? One could get to you before I could
ever make a move.”

She was so beautiful. Even with red eyes, no makeup, her
face all blotchy from crying, and that sprinkle of freckles across the bridge
of her nose he adored, she managed to rob him of his breath. That had to have
some kind of meaning. Didn’t it? Yeah. It meant he was so far gone he was never
going to be normal again, not when it came to this woman. Hell, he’d fallen
hard like a cowboy bucked off a green-broke horse. No question about it, she’d
won him hands down. She didn’t even realize it.

Her body fit against his perfect, and damn it, he knew she
was trouble with a capital T. He didn’t care. He wanted her and nothing was
going to erase or ease the need until he had her beneath him and his cock
buried to the hilt inside her.

Duel released a pent-up breath and accepted he might as
well toss in the flag. He was a cowboy roped, heeled, and hog-tied. But who
cared? The weight of her breasts felt right against his chest. His palms itched
to cup them, to taste the delicate tight nipples poking him through his shirt.
His heart pounded. Hell, his dick jerked and sprang to instant life.

“Shit,” he said against her hair, “this could get complicated,
baby.”

“It’s already complicated,” she said, pressing tiny kisses
along his jaw line. “It isn’t going to get less complicated because you’re
holding back. I’ve waited a lifetime for you, cowboy. Kiss me. And this time,
make damn certain you remember doing it.”