A
DESPERADO FOR CHRISTMAS
EXCERPT
Did she just see something move? Maybe not.
Raising her
infrared binoculars, Kaitlin focused on that particular area. There
it was again. A flicker of movement. Then she saw people furtively
running from rock to rock. She couldn’t tell how many. Fifteen?
Twenty? Did they know she was watching? Had they seen the lights
of the visiting Jeep? Heard the engine? The conversation?
Sliding down the slope, she searched the Hummer but couldn’t find
the blasted radio. Then she remembered it hanging from Josh’s
belt. Now it rode with the nitwit toward a damned titty bar.
She flipped the
switch of the car’s com system. Only static. Strange, Josh had
used it earlier and it worked then. She shrugged. Electronics
could be so unreliable and she wasn’t computer savvy. As a last
resort, she pulled out the cell phone at her belt and checked the
reception. Out of range.
Damn and triple damn!
Light
gravel dribbled down the incline. She dropped the cell phone and
reached toward her holster. Drawing the Beretta, she turned around,
her back safely to the Hummer. Her heart faltered as she held the
firearm toward the sound.
“Sweet Mother of
God!” She gasped as her target came into view.
Apollo
himself couldn’t have looked more handsome under the full moon.
Muscles rippled on the smooth torso, shirtless beneath the open
denim jacket.
“Stop
right there. Hands on your head,” she croaked rather than shouted.
He
held up his hands, jostling the backpack on his shoulder.
Glossy black hair fell over his forehead, and the dark gaze of the
Latino man burned with intense fire. He pinned her with his stare
as if trying to say something important, but no words came out. He
appeared to be unarmed, strong, yet she sensed no threat emanating
from him.
“On the ground.
Face down. Spread ’em!”
He didn’t move,
maybe he didn’t understand, so she motioned with the Beretta. Would
he resist arrest? Somehow the thought conjured appealing images.
He dropped the
backpack and laid face down.
She took the
four steps separating them, kicked away the back pack then reached
for the handcuffs at her back. She spread his legs apart. Long,
muscular thighs, calves bulging under his jeans. He turned his head
to watch her, a half smile on his lips. His temple glistened with
sweat. He must have been running but seemed hardly winded. Unlike
her breath which came in quick gasps.
Fascinated by
his physique, she could not think. But who other than an illegal
would roam the desert on Christmas Eve? He didn’t look afraid.
Why? The memory of the group she spotted came to mind, but she
heard nothing move in her immediate vicinity.
She straddled
the man. He didn’t resist when she cuffed his hands behind his
back, then patted him down, looking for a knife or a handgun. Her
hand only found the planes of his hard muscles. It had been a while
since she’d felt a male body this close. He exuded the musky scent
of sage. Astounded by her sensual musings, she rose and stared back
at him. She hoped she looked fierce, like a predator hypnotizing
her prey.
She slowly moved
away and motioned with the Beretta for him to get up and get into
the Hummer.
The man smiled
as he stood up slowly and stared past her. “Ola!” he said in
a deep baritone.
“Ola!”
another man answered, disturbingly close behind her.
Kaitlin froze and a
shiver ran up her spine. She’d made a mistake by leaving the
protection of the Hummer.
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