Page 55 of Don't Let Go

Not that I’d had a single doubt about her. My sugar bear was a fighter.

Chapter

Nineteen

PATCH

Tracking MadOg took us from the desert of Nevada towards Texas. A small town settled somewhere between Hill Country and the Gulf of Mexico. Hours of research and two satellite hacks later, I knew not a hell of a lot about Juniper, Texas.

The town had a population of 2,145 people as of the last census. Over the course of five years, three Silicon Valley companies relocated to Juniper, bringing with them a huge infusion of cash to promote the population boom.

Combined investments added three new subdivisions to a town that had all of one main road—Main Street—with a barber, a grocer, a beauty salon, a veterinarian and the town doctor, who worked out of the same building as the mayor. The doctor and the vet took turns serving as the medical examiner.

It was like something straight out of a movie, or maybe a CW teen romance show. Even as I dunked on the idea mentally, I knew damn well I’d absolutely watch it. The town only had one school, and most of the high school age kids took a bus to a town forty minutes away for classes.

If the middle of nowhere had a name, Juniper would be it. The place made me itch. I didn’t sleep that much even when theguys got cranky about it. Real rest proved elusive, not with the dark dreams that kept haunting me.

When it wasn’t shadows grabbing for me to drag me under it was attacks from actual monsters, like a giant alligator crushing the engine and beginning to tear into the vehicle I was in.

McQuade helped, but even his presence couldn’t drive them away. We had too much to do and I needed to know more about Juniper, the MadOg operations there. While I’d only linked one of the companies to MadOg, I suspected all of them were but I couldn’t find the link to prove it.

All I had was my gut instinct. It was that gut that tied itself up into knots as McQuade, Locke, and Remington worked out their plan to surveil the town and its inhabitants. We’d save the new company campuses forafterthey got a look at the town.

With only one car, they couldn’t arrive in town separately. They’d debated it, the pros and the cons. Pros, they could gather different information with different approaches.

Cons? They would be separated and it would be harder for all three to return here in case of an emergency. That led to another debate, did all three go or did one of them stay here?

Eventually, the argument circled back to the beginning. They all noticed different things and had different specialties. That meant for the most efficient manner of information gathering, all of them would go.

It was early afternoon when they left. The truck was parked at a rest stop about ten miles out of the town. The new subdivisions were another five miles south and two miles east. The company campuses were solidly on the other side of town.

I double-checked their comm connections and nodded at the weapons the guys had left me secured within easy reach.

“Be safe,” Remington ordered before he gripped my chin, tilted my head back and kissed me solidly. It robbed me of all breath. His flirty wink made me happy that I was seated.

No sooner did he back away than Locke took his place. He gripped the arms of my office chair and swooped in for a kiss that was all teeth and tongue. My hammering heart seemed to triple its pace.

Where Remy’s kiss had been as sweet as the tea he drank, there was the solid bitterness of coffee and the hazelnut creamer that Locke preferred to flavor his kiss.

Heat flushed through me and scorched my face. I probably looked like a boiled lobster as I turned my attention to McQuade who’d watched as both men kissed me.

“I’ll be with you boys in a minute,” he said as Remy and Locke seemed ready to wait. They eyed each other, then him before Locke focused on me. I waved them off. McQuade wanting a moment of privacy was fine with me.

Frankly, I craved it myself. Having all of them watching me as they each delivered their kisses unlocked a whole new kink. Now was definitely not the time to give into that particular desire. It definitely wasn’t the place.

McQuade didn’t move until Locke and Remy vanished around the divider that separated my office from the other living spaces. Once they were gone, he closed the distance between us and reached for my hand.

With one light tug, he pulled me up and plucked the headset off me with his free hand. The wild heat from earlier still scorched my face. When I stumbled a half-step, McQuade steadied me even as I caught myself with a hand pressed to his chest.

“Sugar Bear,” he said, his voice dipping into that low growl that made me shiver. I couldn’t look anywhere else but him. The magnetism in his gaze kept me in place even more firmly than his hands.

My throat went dry and the slam of my heart grew even louder in my ears. “John?”

Where his voice held command, mine was far less certain. I’d grown so used to their presence even as it baffled me to lean into trusting others. But I’d meant it when I told Locke that I trusted him.

Somewhere along the way, I’d discovered a real trust for them and their motives. They asked me for nothing, other than a list of targets. They never had to come and look for me, yet they had. The guys had other work, jobs they did and rather than hurry this along, they’d put the rest of their lives on hold for me.

Digging my fingers into McQuade’s chest, I used the steady thump of his heart to slow my own. He said nothing, his gaze riveted on mine. It was like we were falling into each other, this slowly decaying orbit with one or both of us at the center.

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