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JACK
Cal’s headbounced as the Jeep that had been waiting for us on the tarmac beyond Reuben’s compound bumped over the uneven terrain. Reuben’s property was nestled in a remote part of the Australian Outback in the far corner of Queensland where it met up with South Australia and New South Wales. The rear of his property bordered Sturt National Park. To say it was remote was an understatement. It was certainly a far cry from where I’d grown up, where I could see the sea from my bedroom window.
There was no water anywhere near where Reuben had settled.
Just being here made my skin feel like it was too tight, like I was drying out from the inside, like my blood couldn’t pump right this far from the ocean.
Cal fidgeted with the neck of his T-shirt, and I wondered if he felt the same way. He’d grown up in the Pacific Northwest where it was cool and wet all the time. At least I’d grown up close enough to where we were to at least be used to the heat. I knew Cal had done time in the desert when he was in the US military, but there was something about the beautiful but desolate landscape that was the Outback that just hit different.
Instead of showing Cal how much I hated being this far from water, I did everything I could to relax and appear unaffected, casually throwing an arm over the Jeep’s frame and leaning back into my seat. There was no way in hell I was going to let down my guard and let him see me vulnerable again. It had been bad enough on the plane, and I hated that he’d come to my rescue even as I loved the fact that my shirt still smelled like him from where he’d fallen asleep on my shoulder.
“It’s hot as fuck.” Cal’s voice was strained, and he tugged at his shirt collar again.
“Really?” I shrugged. “Guess I’m used to it.”
“What? How?” Cal squeaked.
Sticking with my casual act, I kept my attention focused on the road in front of us as the driver expertly navigated the barely paved road. “I grew up here.”
“You did not. You grew up in Tasmania.”
My gaze swung his way. “Oh, ho. Been looking into me, huh?” Cal didn’t react, which was his tell that I’d hit my mark. “Nah, it wasn’t you. You’re not good enough with a computer. Did you have Julius hack me?”
Again, Cal sat stock-still, a bead of sweat running down his cheek.
And fuck if I didn’t want to lick it off.
There was no denying the chemistry that arced between us every time we were in the same space at the same time, and I alternated between loathing and loving the fact that we’d ended up going after the same target in Colombia.
I’d known who he was the second I saw him sitting at the hotel bar, his reputation preceding him. He’d been wearing a dark dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of jeans, and even though I couldn’t see his face, there was something about him I couldn’t resist, that drew me to him like a moth to a flame.
That made me fuck him almost through the mattress when I’d found out our interests in the bedroom were very much aligned.
That made me get up early to zip-tie him to the bed—even though I knew he’d hate me for it—and save his life by finishing the job when I found out he’d been made and targeted by the men we were competing to take out. Not that he knew that. Not that he ever would.
That same weird tug behind my navel that had drawn me toward Cal that first night had made me follow him around the world twice, watching his back even when I wasn’t working a job anywhere near him.
Had made me cause a landslide that saved his life—again—during his last op working for that asshole Alex.
The op he’d been working while I’d been meeting with Reuben after bringing Amanda Vanderkaamp to his compound and agreeing to go check up on Juno Hunter and her family.
All he’d had to say was Cal’s grandmother’s name and I was all in because I knew it would mean coming face-to-face with Cal again with a legit reason to be in his orbit, and if I stopped off in Walla Walla before showing up on the Hunters’ doorstep, that was my business.
Not that Cal knew I had anything to do with the landslide or that the enemy had their crosshairs on the back of his head the second before the outcropping of rock he’d been perched on dissolved underneath him. Thank God I’d had a single small charge and some detcord. He didn’t need to know I’d pulled the cartel member that had a sniper scope trained on Cal out of his hiding spot and taken him out with his own gun.
Nope. Those were secrets I would take to my grave.
That and the fact that that night in Colombia, and every time I’d been with Cal since, lived rent-free in my head, taunting mydreams, and making me hate the idiot next to me if only because he was out of reach. He would never be mine.
Not the way I wanted him, not when it was clear Cal seemed to want everyone but me unless I happened to show up where he was, then a few stolen hours fucking around were all I got. The second we parted ways, I was out of sight, out of mind.
Which sucked because all I wanted was for him to be mine. Only mine.
Which wasn’t on the menu.
So I was content to hate him up close and love him from afar.
Because it’s what I needed to do.
