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Chapter Twenty
McKenzie
“I love you, too.” My heart is overflowing with love for this man who has taken me places where I never dreamed I could go, whose steady and unwavering strength and love has finally set me free.
He leans across the seat and kisses me. It’s a kiss filled with promise—the promise of a lifetime of love and laughter and sharing the good and the bad, of traveling the sometimes-bumpy road of life with him by my side, and the certainty that together we can face anything.
Then he realizes I can’t put my arms around him. “I’ve got to figure out how to get you out of those cable ties.” He raises his eyebrows, shooting me a grin that has depravity written all over it. “Unless you want to have a little kinky fun in the woods.”
I laugh. And sex. My God, I will never get tired of the wicked and lustful way he makes me feel, and the way he commands my body.
“That’s tempting. But if the guy from the hotel finds us, I don’t want to be naked and tied to a tree. Or whatever diabolical thing you think up.”
“What guy? You told me your friend Walker had kidnapped you.”
“He did. But he went downstairs to get me something to eat and when someone knocked at the door, I assumed it was him and I opened it. But it wasn’t him. It was the guy in the suit that you attacked on the street outside the hotel.”
“El Gato said he hadn’t sent anyone after you since Costa Rica and promised he wouldn’t.” Noah bites out the words, clearly furious.
“It was an American. He reminded me of a Navy SEAL, but there was something kind of cold and dead about him.” I shiver at the memory. “And he definitely wasn’t there to protect me. The gun he held to my ribs was loaded and real.”
Noah has a look of intense concentration on his face, and I wait patiently while he sorts through the facts in his head. I’ve never known anyone who can process information at quite the same level that he can.
“He had highly advanced military training,” he muses thoughtfully. “It all made sense when you told me it was Walker. But why would an American-trained soldier try to kidnap you? Or possibly want to kill you?”
“I don’t know. It has to have something to do with Liam’s list. The guy on the boat, the incident at the cave. We have to talk to Walker. He can help us.”
Noah looks at me consideringly. “You trust him?”
“With my life.”
“It may come down to that.” He sighs heavily. “There’s something more going on here that I don’t fully understand, but I intend to get to the bottom of it. I want to find the guns so I can walk away from all of this and start my life over with you. If he can help us put an end to this, and help me keep you safe until then, let’s talk to him.”
An hour later, a Jeep roars through the brush and comes to a stop. Walker gets out. He looks like some gorgeous, mulatto-skinned Rambo in camo pants and a tank top that reveals his ripped arms and torso, with an AK-47 strapped to his leg. Although I’d told him on the phone that he had to trust me that Noah wasn’t who he thought he was, and that we needed his help, he clearly isn’t ready to rely on my word.
Noah approaches him and holds out his hand. Walker reluctantly takes it.
“I love her.” The simplicity of Noah’s admission slays me. “I will do anything to keep her safe. Including trusting you.”
I can see Walker soften a little, although he doesn’t give Noah any quarter.
“Why is she still bound?” he barks.
“I don’t have anything to cut the ties with. I was hoping you would.”
Walker walks over to me. With his back to Noah, he lifts my hands and slices through the cable ties with the knife he pulls from his boot.You okay?He mouths the words so Noah can’t hear him, giving me the opportunity to tell him if Noah is keeping me against my will. I nod.
“I love him, Walker. He loves me. He’s not who you think he is. Please just listen, okay?”
He hesitates, and then nods curtly. Turning back to Noah, he says, “I’m listening, but this had better be good. If I think you have anything but McKenzie’s best interests at heart, I’ll kill you.”
Noah nods. “Fair enough.”
Having reached some sort of completely fucked-up understanding, Walker listens without interrupting as Noah tells him everything he’s told me, ending with how he was assigned to find me to determine what on Liam’s list might lead him to the stash of guns, but that he ended up falling for me instead.
“So, what do you want to do now?” Walker asks when Noah is finished.
“Most importantly, I want to keep McKenzie alive and safe. But I’m afraid as long as the guns are missing, she’s in danger. Someone else definitely wants the list, and they may want her dead, as well.”
