Page 110 of Recurve Ridge

Tin Mansuited Jon Littleman all too well.

“Mari,” I called, bringing her attention back to me. “There’s a car on the dirt road half a mile that way.” I jerked my thumb behind me in the opposite direction from where she’d arrived. “It’s yours. Everything’s in your name. Illegal but untraceable. Alan hasn’t let me be caught yet.”

Mari lifted the keys, wonder widening her eyes. Her fingers brushed over mine. A shiver shot up my arm, and I pressed my hand to my thigh to prevent myself from touching her again.

“Are you sure?” She turned the pair of new keys over in her tiny hand.

“Am I sure? Hell no, sweetheart. But if you want that freedom, then you’d better run before I change my goddamn mind,” I growled, echoing Alan’s sentiment and meaning it no less. My lips pressed tight together as I bit the words out, only half playacting.

Mari giggled.

She fuckinggiggled.

Add that as one more reason why I’d fallen in love with her in a few short months.

Anyone with their sensibilities in the right place would have tripped off the veranda in their haste to escape, but not Mari.

A handful of chuckles echoed her sentiment around the room.

Mari squeezed the keys between her fingers as though testing they were real. “What’s the second one for?”

Jon grinned, brushing his fingers along her throat. She shuddered at the contact, her lips parted in a response that went straight to my cock—and his.

“Robe’s office in New York City.” He spoke into her hair as he whispered the address into her ear. “There’s a nice penthouse apartment on the top floor of the building. Key’s in the bottom drawer of his desk, taped behind the back. It’s yours.” He nuzzled her neck, sucking hard enough to mark her.

A tiny moan escaped her lips, her eyes fluttering closed. When she opened them, Mari stared at me as she leaned back into Jon’s embrace, the ghost of a knowing smile gracing her lips.

I clenched my fists, willing self-possession to take hold of me before I ripped her from his arms. A dual need tore through me. The urge to protect her roiled inside my chest, demanding to be released.

“Yana manages my company, but she’s been begging to retire for the past year. I’ve struggled with handing over control of a multimillion-dollar business to someone I don’t know. I’d like you to get to know her, see if she thinks you might make a good… replacement.” I couldn’t offer her any less for tearing away the life she had, for not pushing her through the proper channels when we had the chance to do the right thing.

Her eye for detail and her care factor in my house showed me everything I needed to make the decision.

Mari’s pretty eyes narrowed. “Did you cyberstalk me, Mr. Huntingdon?”

“Through a screen, but never in person,” I said in a rueful voice, as though that slim difference made it all right to inch my way into her private life to ensure who she claimed to be matched up with the woman I loved.

Lucky for us all, she did.

Her eyes darkened. “Your company? The one you ran with Gi—” She swallowed and stopped.

I didn’t force her to say his name again. Once was more than enough. “Knight & Watchman. The same as the accounts you looked over. It’s who we were. Who I was, once. It’s a private security firm that deals with cases like yours. Perhaps you can make a difference there.”

Maybe my purpose could become hers.

“Maybe you can come visit one day,” she whispered, her eyes glistening.

I forced my lips up. “Is that a yes?”

Not to the question I want to ask you.

My heart ached.

“It sounds like you have a reason to leave the mountain, Robe.”

“Bullshit,” Alan yelled over a chorus of laughter. “He’s afraid to go into town.”

“Iftownis several hours away and situated in one of the biggest business centers in the world, then yes, I’ll take that one.” I gave her a rare smile, and she rewarded me with one of her own as laughter bubbled from her again. I tapped the phone Alan gave her. “The number of a doctor who can help you is programmed in there. Use it. But you can’t contact anyone, not your family or your friends. That’s the price of your freedom. One call and you blow your safety net to hell. And… don’t Google yourself.”

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