Page 60 of Montana Rain

Sliding down, I gritted my teeth as I fit Rayne to my chest, wrapping my arms around her. We were off the mountain and relatively safe. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and as soon as we were warm, I was sure Jude, Daniel, and the others would want to talk to us about it. But Rayne came first.

I grabbed her hands and intertwined our fingers, holding them under the water. She groaned, and I kissed her neck. “I’ve got you.”

“This is a bitch,” she said through her teeth.

“Yes, it is.”

Outside the bathroom, I heard the front door open and low speech before it closed again.

Neither Rayne nor I said much, just sinking deeper into the water until she had turned and was sprawled across my chest, and we breathed more easily. “Sorry I hijacked your bath,” I said quietly.

“I’m not.”

“You ready to get out?”

She mumbled the words into my skin. “No, but I’m also hungry.”

“The food should be here.”

I helped her out of the tub, and it was glorious to have the air in this cabin be warm. Clothes and a whole bag of food had been placed on the kitchen table.

“I won’t lie,” I said. “I don’t want you to put your clothes on.”

The simple pajamas Evie had brought Rayne didn’t change the fact that she’d just been naked and wet in my arms. She blushed, twisting her damp hair up off her neck. “I’m sure you’ll take them off later.”

A strange type of relief went through me. I crossed the room and took her face in my hands, kissing her breathless. “Part of me was afraid we’d come back to real life and you’d change your mind.”

“I think it’s a little late for that,” she whispered. “You cracked my shell.”

I grinned. “Damn right, I did.”

Rayne peeked in the bags and gasped. “You had them bring ravioli?”

“I mentioned it’s what you’d wanted, but I also said that food itself was more important.”

A container of pasta for each of us was in the bag, and the sounds coming out of Rayne’s mouth made it more than worth it to delay my burger craving. They also made me so hard I could barely see straight.

After we ate our fill, I texted Daniel that we were ready. It was late now, but they came straight over. Rayne and I were in the living room, sitting separately, much to my annoyance, when they came in.

“Glad you both are safe.”

“It was touch and go there for a bit,” I admitted.

Jude sat down and leaned his elbows on his knees. “It’s been an eventful night for everyone.”

Rayne looked at him. “Oh?”

“We gave the FBI some of what they wanted,” he said. “We told them we had a drive with information integral to their case. We also told them that due to the contents and the offensive nature of the virus, we couldn’t risk sending the information digitally, nor were we comfortable sending it through the mail. Not least because you need it, Rayne.”

“Can’t imagine they were happy with that,” I said sarcastically.

“No,” Daniel said. “But they want the drive, and they want the source—” he nodded to Rayne “—in Chicago to be interviewed and make sure you don’t know anything else. They know nothing else about you other than you came into contact with the drive in a way that was completely unintentional and are now a target.”

Rayne pulled her knees up to her chest. “You think I should go?”

The question wasn’t directed at Daniel and Jude. She looked straight at me. “It doesn’t mitigate all the risk,” I told her. “But handing the Justice Department ammo against these guys is a good thing, and they’ll protect you.”

“If I don’t go, then this is never over,” she pointed out. “At least if I give them the drive, it’s off the table.”

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