Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(62)

On the bright side, things between the two of them had been great. Amazing. Physically, they hadn’t done more than kiss, but with every day that went by, things between them got deeper, more and more intimate. The other night, they’d spent about half an hour with Meat on his back, on the couch, Zara straddling his waist—but mindful of his ribs—while they made out. She might be a virgin, but she was quickly coming into her own sexually and discovering what she liked. And most of the time, what she liked was for Meat to let her explore.

He found that he couldn’t deny her anything. If she wanted to see what happened to his nipples when she kissed them, far be it from him to tell her no.

He’d been monitoring the original email addresses he’d made for her, and she’d gotten a few more messages from her uncle, demanding she contact him about the trust—and each message seemed to get more and more pushy when she didn’t respond.

She’d also received a few emails from nuts who said they didn’t believe she’d been kidnapped down in Lima, and had accused her of murdering her own parents and hiding out for the last fifteen years.

Meat hadn’t shared those with her, though. Every time she read or watched a report where someone claimed details about her that were so far from the truth they were laughable, she got increasingly upset. And he didn’t want to add to her angst by sharing those ridiculous emails.

Zara had chosen not to have a press conference for now, deciding it wouldn’t change anything that had happened to her, and hoping the furor over her return would die down if she ignored it. But it hadn’t. It seemed the more time that went by without Zara telling her story, the more people wanted to know, and the more they simply made up what they wanted to believe.

And as much as Meat wanted Zara to get out more, to really start living instead of hiding out at his house, he wasn’t so sure about her meeting with her childhood friend Renee.

He couldn’t even put his finger on what bothered him about that situation. He’d thoroughly investigated her, and even had Rex see what he could find too. And what they’d found was exactly what she’d told Zara.

Renee Heller was twenty-five and had been in the same school and class as Zara when she’d disappeared, exactly like she’d claimed. She’d grown up in Denver, near where Zara had, and was currently a hairdresser. After graduating from high school, she’d worked at National Jewish Health hospital as an entry-level warehouse associate, receiving and delivering packages and shipments. But she’d worked there for only a few years before going to cosmetology school. She seemed to have an okay relationship with her parents, and she’d had a few boyfriends over the years.

She lived in a small studio apartment near the downtown area of Denver. The rent wasn’t exactly cheap, but she paid it on time every month. She was tall and slender, with bleached-blonde hair, and was always impeccably dressed, based on her social media pics. Meat hadn’t been able to find even one red flag that should make him leery of Zara meeting with the woman. She’d never been arrested and seemed to be a regular upstanding citizen.

But there was still something bothering him, and he couldn’t explain the feeling.

Zara was happy to receive additional emails from her old friend, and they’d even begun talking on the phone. As much as Meat wished she’d make a connection with Morgan or one of the other women, like she seemed to with Renee, he wasn’t going to let Zara know he was uncomfortable with her choice of friends, not when he couldn’t find reason to be suspicious. She was an adult, even if she’d had an unconventional childhood, and could make her own decisions.

One night, he’d overheard Zara telling Renee how she’d sometimes had to resort to stealing for food. She didn’t sound thrilled to be admitting it, and from the side of the conversation he could hear, Meat got the feeling Renee was hounding Zara for details on her less-than-savory experiences while in Peru, which bothered him. It didn’t exactly thrill Zara either, if her tone was anything to go by.

Given the amount of time she spent on the phone with Renee, Meat wasn’t too surprised when Zara came out onto his back porch and said that she and Renee had worked out a time and place to meet.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. She has Thursday afternoon off. She said she could come down and meet me at Ted’s Montana Grill in Briargate, just off Interstate 25. I told her I’d get with you and let her know.”

Meat saw how excited Zara was for this meeting. There was no way he’d deny her, even though something still bothered him about Renee. “I’m happy to take you,” he told her.

“Thank you so much, Meat,” Zara said, then surprised him by straddling his lap. Because she was so small, she literally had to climb up onto the chair he was sitting in, and once in place, her legs were spread-eagle over his hips.

It was suggestive as hell, and it was all Meat could do to keep his hands at her waist to steady her and not touch her more intimately.

“I know you wish I’d be hanging out with your friends instead, but I have a connection with Renee that I don’t have with the other women. I like them, but Renee knows me. Knows the person I used to be.”

“She knows the ten-year-old kid you used to be,” Meat countered. “So much time has passed since then. People change. You certainly have.”

“I know,” Zara said quietly, her hands resting lightly on his upper arms. “But when I talk to her, she reminds me of how I used to feel when I didn’t have a care in the world. How much fun we had together.”