Delta Force Daddy

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Asher ducked his head, clenching his fists, holding them at the ready. They were the only weapons he had and wouldn’t be very effective against a gun—not that his jailers at Hidden Hills could get away with murdering him in a parking lot. Could they?

In the silence of the car as he waited, his heart hammered in his ears. The rush of adrenaline ebbed and flowed in his body and he fought off the dizziness it caused.

If the guy had spotted him in the car, why hadn’t he made a move? Asher scooted up in his seat and looked in the rearview mirror first. The man had moved on—probably just someone making his way through the parking lot.

Asher sat up straighter and his gaze swept the lot. A shuttle bus waited at the curb at the base of the broad steps that led to the shops and ultimately the ski lifts. A few people were milling around the steps. When the shuttle pulled away, two women and a solo man were left behind.

The women seemed to be conferring about something over their phones, but the man watched...and waited.

Asher kept his eye on him as the man’s head swiveled from the parking lot to the shops. Was he waiting for his wife?

He could be the man who’d passed by Paige’s car. Asher didn’t see any other single men in the parking lot and not another man in red plaid.

Asher locked on to him, studying his every move. When Paige appeared at the top of the steps laden down with shopping bags, Asher sat up, every sense on high alert.

The stranger seemed to come to attention, too. He turned his back to the parking lot to watch Paige’s descent, his hands shoved in his jacket pockets.

With his fingertips buzzing, Asher clicked open the car door. His first step on the cold asphalt with his bare foot sent a shock through his system, but it only served to jolt him into action.

He left the car unlocked and then weaved through the parked vehicles, ducking and crouching in case the man decided to peel his eyes from Paige.

As she hit the last step, her vision and movement hampered by the bags swinging from her arms and clutched to her chest, the stranger made his move.

He reached his arm out to Paige as if in assistance...but Asher knew better. He shot forward, shouting and waving his arms.

“I’m here. I’m here. I’m the one you want.”

Chapter Five (#uffbcf5cf-53e5-5a9c-b9ab-6c4d753dbced)

Paige had been moving away from the man and now she turned her face toward Asher barreling down on both of them. Her mouth dropped open and she stumbled to the side, away from the stranger and his outstretched hand, the rest of his body twisted in Asher’s direction.

His right hand still out of his pocket, the man swiveled around to face Asher. He swayed to his left and in a split second Asher took advantage of his imbalance.

He charged the man, his hospital gown flapping around him, and shouted. “Run, Paige!”

With a few feet between him and the stranger, Asher made a flying tackle at him that would’ve made his friend Cam the football player proud. Before the man could reach into his pocket for whatever weapon he had, Asher drove his shoulder into the guy’s chest, knocking him backward onto the steps.

The two women several feet away screamed.

The man’s hand clawed at his pocket, but Asher pinned the hand with his knee, driving it into the cold cement. He grunted, and Asher gave him more to grunt about as he smashed his fist against the man’s nose. Blood spouted and Asher followed up with a punch to the gut.

A woman was screeching behind him. “We’re calling the police.”

Asher landed another punch to the side of the man’s head. As he drew back his fist for another onslaught, a car horn blared behind him.

He twisted his head over his shoulder, and Paige’s rental car squealed to a halt at the shuttle stop. His hand jerked to a stop in midair, and he plunged it into the man’s pocket. His fingers curled around a syringe.

He pulled it out as Paige honked again. The man groaned beneath him and Asher jabbed him in the side of the neck with the needle.

A few more people had gathered at the top of the steps and Asher knew the cops wouldn’t be far behind. He pulled the needle from the man’s neck, staggered to his feet and jumped into Paige’s car, which she’d already put into motion.

She floored it out of the parking lot, and the car bounced like it was in a movie chase scene when she rolled off the curb into the street.

“Oh my God. You’re bleeding.”

“I think that’s his blood.”

“No.” She reached over and rubbed his burning knuckles. “Your hand is bleeding.”

“That’s from hitting him. I took him by surprise and he didn’t get many shots in.” He held up the needle. “He was counting on using this.”

Paige gasped. “Throw it out the window.”

“So somebody else, maybe a kid, could pick it up?” He dropped it on the floor of the back seat. “I’ll wrap it up and dispose of it later.”

“I screwed up. We shouldn’t have come here.” She slammed the heel of her hand against the steering wheel. “Of course this would be the first place they’d look.”

“We had to come here. We didn’t have a choice.”

She pressed her fingers against her cheek. “And your poor feet, running around out there in the cold, fighting in a hospital gown.”

“Don’t worry about me. I should’ve never sent you out there on your own. I should’ve realized someone would be staking out the ski resort.”

She lifted her eyebrows. “You couldn’t exactly go shopping in that getup.”

“I need to get out of this.” He plucked at the hospital gown. “I need to start feeling human...and then there’s going to be hell to pay.”

* * *

PAIGE GLANCED AT him as she smoothed her hands over the steering wheel. They’d finally stopped shaking, but Asher’s words sent a new jolt of adrenaline through her system.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to figure out who’s doing this to me and why, and I’m not going to stop until I have all the answers...and all my memories.”

“Where can we go now?” She adjusted the rearview mirror and released a small breath.

“There’s no real snow yet, right? There must be hundreds of cabins in this area, vacant for at least a few more weeks until the holidays.”

She swallowed. “You’re suggesting we break into someone’s empty cabin and make ourselves at home?”

“Just until we can get our bearings, and I can put some clothes on.” He jerked his finger over his shoulder. “Whoever that guy was back there, he’s out. His associates are going to figure we’ve fled the area.”

“We should flee the area.”

“Let’s do the unexpected.” He tapped on the window. “Make the next turn.”

For the next twenty minutes, Asher guided her through mountain roads and turnouts like he knew the place. After surveying and abandoning several prospective cabins, he had her follow a road into a heavily wooded area where a single cabin nestled against the side of a mountain.

“This one.”

“How do you know someone’s not living here?”

“Do you see any vehicles? Any pets? Any life at all?”

Her eyes darted around the property. “No, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be.”

“We’ll play it by ear.”

She jabbed his thigh with her finger. “I think you forgot how cautious you used to be.”

“I was Delta Force. I couldn’t have been that cautious.”

“You are Delta Force, and I guess cautious is the wrong word. Maybe I mean organized. You like to plan.”

“This is a plan. It’s the only viable one right now except to go on the run.”

“In a hospital gown.”

“Right. Park in the back.”

She swung the car to the right on the dirt road that curved around the house and continued through the trees in the back. Luckily the snow had held off so far this season, or it would’ve piled up in front of them. Now they just rolled over cold, frozen ground.

Ducking her head, she peered through the windshield. “Do you think they have security cameras?”

“If they do, I’ll have to disable them.”

As Paige stepped out of the car, her shoe crunched the gravel and the sound seemed to echo in the woods. She tipped her head back and scanned the edges of the roof for security equipment.

Asher appeared next to her. “I don’t see anything, do you?”

“No.” She pointed to his feet. “You could’ve at least put on the boots I bought for you.”

He curled his toes into the gravel. “I’m getting kind of used to being barefoot.”

“I’ll get them.” She buried her head in the back seat of the car, where she’d tossed the bags in her mad rush to get back to Asher fighting with the stranger. She backed out of the car with the bags hanging from her arms and turned to face the cabin, leaving her own suitcase and laptop on the seat.

Asher waved from the cement slab behind the cabin. “I think I found a way in.”

She strode toward him, the bags banging against her thighs. “I feel like a thief.”

“We’re not going to steal anything...except some soap and water.” He rubbed his hands together. “And maybe some firewood.”

A few minutes later, Asher had jimmied the lock on the back door. He rested his hand on the doorknob. “Are you ready?”