Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(37)
“But—”
“It’s not wrong.” Rafe silenced her words by gently brushing his mouth over hers. “And it’s not selfish if it’s what helps you to move forward. We will find Rachel.”
“What if she’s a carbon copy of Carlotta by the time we find her?”
“Then she’ll have you to help remind her who she is. She’ll have you to help her through it.” He curled her into his side, the move so natural she nestled her bare cheek against his chest. Callused fingers caressed her arm from the back of her hand to the bend of her elbow.
Lingering sexual tension made every inch of her body tingle, but it wasn’t alone. Something infinitely more dangerous huddled beneath the hum of their bodies. Warm and cozy, it settled in the center of her chest, branching out until she didn’t give it a second thought when her hand absently stroked down the length of his torso and back up.
It was intimacy.
Beneath her ear, the quick thumping of his heart matched her own.
Rafe murmured softly. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll start mapping out the lay of the land, look for things that may be hidden beneath the pretty surface—like why Carlotta was so preoccupied with what was toward the east.”
“And if it’s more nothing?”
Rafe tugged her gaze upward. “Then we’ll deal with that just like we’ll deal with anything else that happens to come along. And we’ll deal with it together.”
Penny didn’t have the strength to ask him what that meant. She was too preoccupied with his use of the term we.
And together.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Quick and easy. That’s how this was supposed to go. With Penny keeping the eyes of Fuentes’s men turned in her direction, this would be a piece of cake. Of course, that meant Rafe had to keep his head from wandering to Penny keeping the eyes of Fuentes’s men turned in her direction.
He hadn’t liked the plan when she’d suggested it, but he’d had to admit that it made the most sense. Keeping the focus away from him, he’d be able to slip away undetected and find the main source of the compound’s power. Now that he had, he cursed.
Fucking solar.
“Where’s Charlie when you need her?” Rafe muttered.
Give him a Glock, a KA-BAR, or a f*cking pair of boxing gloves and he was golden, but don’t expect him to pull out the science. Knowing he didn’t have time to nap on the job, Rafe got down to work.
Luckily for him, there was no way in hell Fuentes had the compound on-grid, not this far away from civilization. And sure enough, he found the battery bank that kept the system running off-hours. Once he took away the backup, it would be lights out at sundown.
Rafe couldn’t just pluck a wire or snip it in half, because even the dense security Fuentes had on staff would be able to tell the difference between sabotage and a furry critter. So he pulled out his toys and got creative, quick. The longer it took him to disrupt the compound’s solar grid, the longer Penny was out there alone.
*
Eyes closed but not the least bit sleepy, Penny pretended to enjoy a lazy morning at the pool. Jungle life surrounded her with the cackles of mischievous monkeys and chirping birds, but it wasn’t a symphony fit for the masters. Each sharp trill drilled through her temple like an ice pick and reminded her that she wasn’t here on vacation. She had a job to do, and this morning it was to keep the eyes of Fuentes’s guards on her so Rafe could sabotage the compound’s power.
Her plan had seemed like a good idea at the time. A cup of ice and a bathing suit didn’t really leave room for errors. But that was before she remembered the suit Maria packed was less suit and more like brightly colored dental floss.
Penny picked up another ice cube and forced her mind away from the watching gazes. Neck. Collarbone. Arm. Occasionally, she threw in the slope of her leg or alternated the order. But every time she ran a piece of ice over the bruises circling each bicep like a black-and-blue version of a tribal tattoo, she was reminded how close she came to screwing up every inch of progress they’d made.
Rafe had been sweet telling her it wasn’t as big a deal as she thought, but they both knew that had been a fib. Well, she knew it.
Mistakes and failure hadn’t been tolerated in the Kline house—at least when she’d lived there. Her father’s pep talks went something like: Fell off a bike? Get back on it. Got pummeled by a bully at school? Hit them back harder. When she’d fallen off the school monkey bars and dislocated her shoulder, her father’s reply to the nurse’s phone call? Slip it back in and send her back to class.
At seven years old.
Rafe and her father were sculpted from the same kind of clay. He did his job without apology, put his life on the line for what was right. Fearless may as well be his middle name. Yet last night, he’d held her close, offered reassurances instead of anecdotes, soft caresses instead of shrug-it-off pats on the ass—and all the while he pretended not to notice the subtle shake of her shoulders.
Each day, Rafe showed her that he wasn’t the typical red-blooded male. It was a good thing, but it wasn’t enough for a storybook ending. One look at Carlotta, back in her drug-induced stupor this morning, confirmed it. Happily ever afters weren’t possible as long as sick men like Fuentes roamed free, and as long as they did, men like Rafe would feel inclined to put a stop to them.