Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(24)

Cale motioned toward the truck. “Get in. We’ll head back to the house. Figure out our next move.”

It took him a few moments to realize that she wasn’t moving. He glanced back at her. “Veronica?”

Her hands went to her hips. “I didn’t know you were a tease.”

His jaw dropped. “What?”

“You owe my brother? I owe him, too. He kept me sane and safe for most of my life. But you know what I’m not going to do?” And now she was walking. More like angrily stomping toward the truck. “I’m not going to let him tell me who I can and can’t make love with. Because that’s my decision. Not his. Just. Mine.”

She hopped into the truck. Slammed the door.

Jasper blew out a slow breath. When the lady was angry, she was gorgeous. That flush in her cheeks. The flash of her eyes...gorgeous. He hurried to the driver’s side, jumped in the vehicle. “It isn’t like—”

“Don’t kiss me like you can’t breathe without me.”

He had kissed her that way. No, more as if she was the breath he needed. He’d never been so desperate to taste a woman before.

“Don’t do that,” she snapped at him, “then in the next minute, go all cool and wooden on me. I’m not like you, okay? I don’t have a line of partners behind me. I don’t play games, and I don’t—”

His fingers curled around the steering wheel. “A line of partners?” Jasper repeated in a choked voice. How did she keep surprising him?

The icy chips of her eyes could have cut a lesser man. “Don’t play with me. That’s what I’m saying. If you want me, then it’s about me and you. Not my brother. Not what you owe him or what he owes you.”

Because Jasper had saved Cale, too. Not in a jungle, in a desert, when a mine had gone off and they’d both come close to being blown to hell.

“Just crank the truck, Jasper.” Now she sounded disgusted. “Maybe we’ll both figure out just what it is that we want.”

He didn’t have to figure it out. He already knew exactly what he wanted. But taking it could prove dangerous.

To him. And to her.

*

WHEN THE TRUCK stopped in front of the ranch, Veronica pretty much leaped out of the vehicle. She was embarrassed and angry and scared. A combination that had her stomach knotting. She was attracted to Jasper. He seemed attracted to her. But then he’d gone all Ice Man on her and—

The alarm wasn’t beeping.

Veronica tensed. She’d unlocked the front door, and, normally, the alarm would beep until she typed in the code.

But the alarm wasn’t beeping.

Jasper’s arm closed around her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“The alarm...”

He swore, seeming to realize what wasn’t happening instantly. Then he was pulling her back. Putting his body in front of hers. He reached for his gun.

She wished she had a weapon, too. Veronica hated feeling helpless. And she was pretty much feeling that way 24/7 these days.

He stepped inside the house. Veronica peered over his shoulder. The foyer looked fine. The den didn’t appear disturbed. Maybe it was nothing. A glitch with the alarm.

“Stay here,” he said and eased inside the house.

Stay there—out in the open? Um, she hadn’t been worried when she’d hopped out of the truck and started walking earlier, but the memory of standing in front of that sheriff’s station, waiting—and then seeing two men get shot right before her eyes—that memory was front and center for her. With the silence of her alarm, the security she felt at the ranch had been shattered. The place didn’t feel safe.

As for staying out on that porch...

No, thank you.

She glanced around. Her gaze searched the small scattering of buildings around the main house. What if a shooter was out there? She’d make a perfect target.

Veronica rushed inside the house and nearly slammed into Jasper. “I’m coming with you,” she whispered.

He frowned, but nodded.

They made their way down the hallway. Nothing was missing. Nothing broken. It didn’t look as if anyone had been there. Maybe she was wrong.

He motioned with his hand to indicate that they should head up the stairs.

Her fingers curled over the wooden bannister. The third stair creaked beneath her feet, and that sound was far too loud.

Her breathing was too loud, too. Too quick. Too raspy.

He turned at the top of the stairs and headed for her brother’s room. The door was partially open. With his left hand, Jasper opened the door wider, even as his right hand kept his gun ready.

The door swung open.

Destruction.

The room had been ripped apart. The mattresses slashed. Every dresser and chest drawer yanked out and overturned. The dresser mirror lay in what looked like a thousand pieces.

“Somebody was looking for something.” Jasper’s quiet voice.

It looked as if somebody had been looking to wreck the place.

Jasper’s hand wrapped around her wrist and they headed back into the hallway. The next room they checked was hers.

The door was shut. She was the one to turn the handle and push the door open.

Her room looked even worse. Because it wasn’t just her mattresses that were slashed. Her clothes were slashed. Her photos. Every memento that she’d ever had was in pieces on her floor.