Page 7 of Raider Unleashed

Baker shook his head. “You’re better off not knowing.”

“Did you…” She left the question open-ended.

Wells looked offended. “His heart was still beating when we left. I ain’t that cold-hearted.”

Shit, this was bad. They’d left him to suffocate to death. Not a way she’d ever choose to go. “What do you think we should do?” she asked.

Wells glanced at Baker. “I think we do what we’re told for now. It’s better if we get an explosives guy and then get the job done. If we don’t, it’s a sure bet Denlo is going to kill us.”

Baker shrugged. “I think he’s gonna kill us either way. I think we’re royally screwed.

4

Raider stood in the middle of the intersection and pointed at the row of cars ahead of him. He signaled the first pickup to move forward. The driver nodded and entered the intersection. A steady stream of cars followed.

It was going to be a long day. More evacuation zones had been declared overnight, which meant that now thousands of people were trying to get out of harm’s way.

A horn blaring to his left captured Raider’s attention. A woman was sitting in her convertible pointing at the light. She was the only one trying to cross the intersection from that direction. Raider held up a hand telling her to stay where she was. She was going to have to wait. The line in front of him was long and he needed to get as many people through as he could.

The woman laid on the horn again but he still ignored her. She could wait one more light cycle. Raider watched the cars roll by him. The look of panic and fear on the faces of the drivers hit him in the gut. Most of these people would be fine. The volcano wouldn’t end up damaging their property or hurting their family. Likely, this was nothing more than a slight inconvenience and they’d end up with a good story to tell.

For a few, he knew they would be devastated. He’d watched the news last night and hated the insensitive comments to the effect that people built their homes by a volcano, what did they expect? It was logical but not exactly understanding. He knew from experience that people who didn’t have much often had to make tough choices. He’d seen it in many places he’d been in the military. Land was cheap on a volcano, like it was in many dangerous areas. People built a home and a life where they could manage it, hoping the threat, in this case a volcano, wouldn’t destroy what they’d worked so hard to build.

The steady blare of a car horn pulled him out of his reverie. He gestured for the oncoming traffic to stop and then turned toward the woman. She floored her little black Mercedes convertible and flew across the intersection.

“Asshole,” she yelled on her way by.

He shook his head and tried not to laugh when a moment later he heard the screech of brakes and a loud crunch. Miss Impatient had cut off a truck turning out of the strip mall and he’d smashed the back of her car. Raider turned back to the traffic with a wide grin underneath his black bandana. Karma was a bitch who came for everyone eventually.

Karma had come for him yesterday in the form of Piper Holloway. He fell madly in love the moment he’d seen her across the bar eight years ago. She’d been wearing a pair of ass-hugging faded jeans and a white tank top and she mopped the floor with some guy who’d been hassling her. The guy had hit on her, and she’d told him in no uncertain terms to fuck right off. He’d gotten pissed and grabbed her arm. She’d whirled around and smashed him in the nose. Flattened it across his face. Then, as he bent over and screamed in pain and outrage, she whispered something in his ear. He immediately stopped yelling, grabbed his jacket, and left.

Raider had gone over with a beer and a bag of ice for her hand. “What did you say to that clown?”

She’d tilted her head back and looked up at him a long moment and then said, “Better for you if you never find out.”

Then she winked and he was a goner. In that wink, he saw his future. Piper as his wife with three little Pipers running around. After they’d been married for a few months, he’d confessed that if she was okay with it, he’d like to start working on those little Pipers. The whole picture of them with kids looked like heaven to him.

Three glorious years later he’d come home from an overseas tour to find his stuff packed and moved into the hallway. She’d been standing there, arms crossed over her chest. “We’re done,” she’d said. “I can’t take you being gone. It just doesn’t work for me.”

Raider’s heart gave a hard thump as he thought about that day. She refused to say anything else other than, “Don’t bother leaving your keys. I had the locks changed.” Her delivery, like she was doing nothing more than reading a weather report, had crushed his soul. His happy life just murdered. No Piper, no mini-Pipers running around. No future for them. Nothing. His life had been turned into a wasteland.

The devastating hole he’d crawled into for months was bleak and soul-destroying. It had taken the better part of a year, but Harlan and the rest of the team had finally managed to get him right again. He wouldn’t…couldn’t…think about her or the family they’d never had. That was the rule. He’d manage as long as he didn’t think about all he’d lost. And now she was here on the Big Island. And, because he knew her so well, even after all this time, he was pretty sure she was in trouble.

Two hours later, Raider was in desperate need of water when a van entered the intersection in front of him. It was turning left to go into the strip mall now that the lady with the Merc hadbeen towed away. He glanced at the driver and did a double take. His heart hit his boots. He’d know that blond ponytail anywhere. It didn’t matter that she was wearing sunglasses and a surgical-style mask to combat the ashy air. He knew it in his bones that his ex-wife Piper was behind the wheel. And some thug was sitting next to her. The same one from the store last night.

It took everything Raider had not to walk away from his post and follow the van. He watched it out of the corner of his eye. Piper pulled around the back of the strip mall and disappeared.Not good. None of your business. Do not get involved.She made it abundantly clear that she was done with Raider when she walked out the door five years ago. “You’re never here so what’s the difference? I’ve made a life without you in it. I’m done trying to shoehorn you back in whenever you bother to come home. It’s exhausting. Just go, Raider. I’m done. You’re just not worth the effort.” Those words were branded on his brain, seared into his soul.

The sound of brakes and squealing tires brought him back to what he was doing. A guy in a pickup had narrowly missed hitting the woman in front of him who’d stopped for a chicken on the road. Raider rushed over and shooed the chicken. The woman smiled her thanks and the man behind shook his head.

Raider returned to the middle of the intersection. He made a futile attempt to focus on traffic, and not watch the strip mall. What the fuck was Piper doing back there with that ruffian? She was working. Why else would she be driving a plain white van behind a strip mall? He studied the surrounding area, but nothing jumped out at him. As he moved a few feet forward to allow a large water truck to make a left, something caught his eye.

And suddenly, Piper’s appearance here made sense. In the corner of the strip mall was a bank. It had been hidden from his view by a line of trees. He stared at it. “Fuck,” he said aloud as hewatched the van pull away from the parking lot and make a right down the street away from him. He knew what she was doing here. She was definitely working. His ex-wife was here to rob a bank.

5

Piper struggled to breathe as she gripped the steering wheel so hard, her knuckles were white. Raider had been at the intersection again. Every time she saw him, emotion hit her like a punch in the gut. Jesus, could it get any worse? What the hell was he doing here? It didn’t matter that until last night, she hadn’t seen him in five years. As they approached the intersection, she knew instantly it was him directing traffic. She’d know Raider Torres anywhere. He was still just as sexy as the first time she’d laid eyes on him in a bar in San Diego. All lean and tight with the best ass she’d ever seen. His deep brown eyes had gold flecks that sparkled. Her nipples puckered just thinking about him.

“Turn here,” Denlo barked.

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