The Stranger and I

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“Much of what we do in this agency is alone. Besides, we do have another agent down there.”

She guessed much of what he did in the agency was alone. Lone Wolf—he’d earned that name somehow.

“One more thing, Lila, you can’t tell anyone about this. The police agencies don’t even know about us. The government will take care of that incident at the compound.”

“What about Chad’s family?”

“They’re back East. They’ll be notified.”

“And the rest of them?”

“Same thing.”

She shivered thinking about the elegant Victoria and nerdy Dave. Real people with real families. She asked, “What about your family?”

His body stiffened, dark clouds scudding across his face. “Don’t have one, except for my sister. She’s married and thinks I have some government job where I travel a lot. Not too far from the truth.”

He gestured toward the squat building beyond the rocks. “You shower first, and I’ll wait outside.”

The Cottonwood campground consisted of forty campsites and ten shower complexes. They enjoyed this one to themselves, as the late-summer months didn’t attract many campers to the desert.

Lila tiptoed into the empty building that housed four shower stalls and cranked on the lukewarm water. The spray hit her back, and she soaped up her body, scrubbing away the sand and dust along with her tension and fear.

Justin stood guard outside, and after knowing him less than twenty-four hours, she knew he’d protect her. He seemed to believe they might be safe now. God, she hoped so. She ached to see Tyler again and hold him in her arms.

She toweled off and called out to Justin to make sure he was still stationed out front. He answered her call. She’d marveled at the supplies in his truck, like the soap and this towel. He lived prepared for flight. A strange, rootless existence.

She dragged her shorts and tank top back over her clean body and stepped outside. She grinned at Justin leaning against a boulder. “Better hurry. I think I used up all the hot water.”

He shoved off the rock. “Hold this gun, just in case. I’ll have mine, too. If you hear or see anything, come into the shower.”

She gave him her best wicked smile. “I might just use that as an excuse.”

His eyes burned with an amber light, as if daring her to make her move. Then he shook his head and ducked into the little building.

Silence hung over the campground, punctuated by the sound of metal on metal as someone at a distant site secured his tent. A shuffling noise rose from behind a rock on the other side of the shower building. Lila’s eyes darted to the rock formation looming at the edge of the shadows. The bush rustled and swayed. An animal?

She raised the trembling gun and pointed at the bush. Her voice scissored through the heavy air. “Justin.”

He got out of the shower as fast as he could with his bad leg, tucking the ends of the towel around his waist with one hand and gripping his gun with the other. “What’s wrong?”

She pointed to the rocks. “I heard a rustling noise by the bush over there.”

“Stay here…and put that gun down.” He prowled toward the outcropping. Raising his weapon, he crept around the rock. Lila covered her ears to block out the…silence.

He returned to her side. “Probably just a small animal. Admit it. You made it up to lure me out here.”

Her heart, returning to its normal number of beats per minute, sped up again at the sight of his naked body strategically wrapped in the small towel. The water from the shower glistened on his broad shoulders, the droplets shimmering in the hair scattered across his well-defined chest. His dark brown hair, sluiced back from his face, curled up where the ends met the nape of his neck. An aching need poured into her with such force, she stepped back.

Her inventory finished, she looked up into his eyes. She glimpsed her own desire mirrored there before the shutters came down.

He turned quickly to the shower. “I’ll finish up.”

By the time he returned, she’d marshaled her reeling senses. This kind of attraction to this kind of man couldn’t happen. They walked slowly back to the campsite, a multitude of brilliants winking down at them from the black velvet canvas above.