Deadly Hunter - Rachel Lee Conard County: The Next Generation

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am. I hope you’re okay.”

      “Okay enough.”

      She frowned faintly. He wondered if she had any idea just how revealing her face was. He enjoyed the chase of expressions across it. “I suppose I can’t ask what that means?”

      “I’m walking and talking. That’s okay.”

      She gave a little nod. “Fair enough. And you can’t talk about any of it?”

      “Not much. Most of my life is classified now.”

      “Well, that’ll make getting to know you an adventure.”

      He laughed. He had to, because of the way she rolled her eyes.

      “I can’t play truth or dare with you,” he said presently. “But I can tell you a few things.”

      “I’m all ears,” she said drily.

      “I graduated from Annapolis. I took some training at Quantico, and then some other places.”

      She perked a little. “Do you happen to know Seth Hardin?”

      “I’ve met him a few times. Briefly.”

      “Aha!”

      “What?”

      “That explains why you wound up in the middle of nowhere. I was wondering. Okay. I won’t bug you about the rest. I heard Seth say once that most of his life was redacted.”

      Another laugh escaped him. “That about covers it.” He wondered if she realized that her eyes were devouring him and awakening a hunger in him. Probably not. He doubted she had any notion of how easy she was to read.

      “SEAL?”

      He shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”

      Her eyes widened a bit. “You mean there are units nobody ever hears about?”

      “I can’t tell you that, either.”

      “I think you just did. Okay, I won’t bug you, promise. Even if I die of curiosity. But if you’re thinking of hanging around here for a while, you need to meet Seth’s family. His father and a couple of his sisters would be just about the only entrée you need around here.”

      An entrée? That snagged his attention. An entrée meant intelligence, and he still wanted a better sense of what Allison might be getting into.

      “Okay,” he said. “Should I just go over and introduce myself?”

      “You could, but Marge might overwhelm you. She mothers everybody.” She paused. “I’ll find a way for you to meet his dad. Tomorrow. He used to be a Green Beret, so I guess he’ll understand what redacted means better than I ever could. He used to be the sheriff here and knows everybody.”

      Exactly the man he wanted to meet, Jerrod thought. Handed to him out of the blue. Funny how those things worked sometimes.

      The aroma of the lasagna was beginning to fill the kitchen now, and his stomach rumbled loudly as if it couldn’t wait.

      Allison laughed. “Twenty more minutes. Sorry.”

      “I’ll survive.” He was pretty sure of that. He’d been surviving for a long time.

      Chapter 3

      Allison awoke Monday morning after the worst night ever. Well, maybe the flu had been worse, but last night had been something else. How many times had she wakened from barely remembered dreams that had left her aching with desire? Heck, she hadn’t even done that in high school.

      Jerrod Marquette was certainly getting to her, and doing it in ways she didn’t want. The man had materialized out of nowhere, couldn’t talk much about himself and gave her the distinct feeling that he might evaporate at any moment.

      He certainly wasn’t planted here, and to her way of thinking that was as big a problem as the secrecy imposed on him. She’d lost everyone in her life who had mattered to her, except some girlfriends, and she didn’t want to risk any more. Jerrod struck her as a huge risk.

      He certainly was as zipped up as anyone she’d ever met. Maybe more so. Seth Hardin came across as an ordinary guy, easy to talk to, with a sense of humor that sometimes bordered on the wicked. Nor was Seth the only other former special-ops guy in the county. Nate Tate, the former sheriff and Green Beret, seemed to attract them. Or at least if they wanted to hang around, he helped make it possible.

      When she thought about it, she almost laughed and spewed her toothpaste. This county probably had more guys with a background in special ops per capita than any place other than a military base.

      She rinsed the toothbrush, decided last night’s shower could carry over because the house was so cold this morning and climbed into her warmest clothes for work.

      “Climate change,” she muttered as she looked at her thermostat to ensure it had readjusted itself for the day.

      She called Nate as she climbed into her frozen car and tried not to hop up and down on the seat from the cold. Sheesh. At least her cell phone was warm as she put it to her ear, waiting for the engine to warm up before she started driving.

      “Nate Tate,” the familiar gravelly voice answered.

      “Hi, Nate, it’s Allison McMann. I have a rescue mission for you.”

      “Yeah?” He sounded interested. “And how are you doing? Collecting those samples?”

      “I’ve got a bunch in my trunk, but I think I’m going to need to branch out to be safe.”

      “Probably.” He sighed. “Damn fool thing to do. There are better ways to protect stock.”

      “Nobody can afford cowboys and herders anymore.”

      “So I hear. But they got paid squat even in my youth. Just about enough to tie one on when they came in from the range. So what’s this rescue mission?”

      “I have a new neighbor.”

      “I heard.”

      There was nothing Nate didn’t hear, so she wasn’t surprised. “He seems okay. One of your kind of guys.”

      “Meaning?”

      “He said most of his life was classified.”

      “Ah. And you want?”

      “It’d be nice if he met someone besides me. Someone who gets where he’s coming from. He seemed interested when I mentioned you.”

      “I’ll introduce myself, then. He at home now?”

      “His truck’s in the driveway. I’m getting ready to go teach a bunch of bored students about the Avogadro constant.”

      Nate ripped out a laugh. “You’re over my head already. Okay, I’ll drop on over.”

      “One warning,” she added before she disconnected. “He’s the most buttoned-up guy I’ve ever met. Thanks, Nate.”

      She shoved the phone back in her pocket and felt some warmth coming out of the heater vents at last. Time to go to work.

      Definitely time to put Jerrod out of her mind and settle down her crazy hormones. Man, if she had to get the hots for someone suddenly, why couldn’t it have been one of her fellow teachers? Not some guy who wouldn’t or couldn’t talk about himself, a guy who would actually think of things like someone pulling this stunt with a deadly toxin because they had a grudge against Jake Madison.

      That was so far outside her world it astonished her, and it was also a world she didn’t want to enter. Not even tangentially.

      Oh, God, had she actually told him he could help collect samples next time she went out? She ought to be barring the barn door before the horse escaped, ought to be avoiding a situation with trouble written all over it in neon capital letters. One broken

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