Diesel (The Mavericks Book 13) Read online

  As soon as he heard it, his eyes opened. He checked his watch and confirmed it was two o’clock. He slipped out from under the covers, pulled on his boxers, jeans and a T-shirt and walked out to the deck. There he raised a hand, as he saw Jerricho standing on the porch of the main cabin. Jerricho walked inside and headed to bed. He would be lucky if he got three hours now, after what Greg had said about getting up at five. Maybe Greg would take it a little easier on Jerricho, but Diesel doubted it.

  He stood here for a long moment, enjoying the fresh crisp air on the lake. So much cooler here, being at a cabin in the summer. It would heat up during the day but then would cool down beautifully in the evening. Right now it was clear and refreshing. He sat here on the stoop for the longest time, thoroughly loving the opportunity to be here. At a sound, he walked back inside the cabin to see her sitting up, pushing her tangled hair from her eyes.

  She stared at him. “What time is it?” she croaked out.

  “It’s three-thirty,” he said. “Go back to sleep.” She lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling and groaned. “I hate waking up at this hour.”

  “Why is that?” he asked.

  “Because it’s so hard to get back to sleep.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he murmured.

  She smiled and then winced. “How come I’m still wearing my bra?”

  “Because I didn’t want to strip you right down to the skin,” he said.

  She sighed, got up, and walked to the bathroom, and, when she came back out, she had on a nightie. She said, “I always leave some clothes here.” And, with that, she yawned and crawled back into bed.

  He walked around the cabin. Every time he checked on her, she was in a different position.

  Finally she groaned, sat up, and announced, “I can’t sleep.”

  “You want to sit outside here with me?” he asked.

  She thought about it and nodded. “Sure.” And sat beside him. “I always loved it out here in the evening,” she said.

  “I don’t think three-thirty, almost four a.m. now, is evening,” he said, with a chuckle.

  She smiled and nodded. “It’s also cool.” He patted his lap, and she crawled onto his lap and curled up. “I forgot how warm you were,” she said, snuggling in close.

  “Well, you’re not wearing much this time,” he said.

  “So, if you’re on watch,” she said, “I guess no hanky-panky, huh?”

  A rumble moved up his chest as he chuckled. “Shouldn’t, no,” he said.

  “Shouldn’t but that doesn’t mean no,” she said. She looked up at him and said, “What better way to keep an eye on me? I mean, other than keeping two hands on me.”

  And, at that, Eva slipped her hands underneath Diesel’s T-shirt and up across his belly and chest. He sucked in his breath and said, “Just because we think we’re safe …”

  “I know,” she said. “I so desperately want to believe we’re safe.”

  “I know,” he said. And she started to kiss him on the side of the neck up to his ear, blowing gently inside, and he felt his belly tighten and his groin swell. “That’s definitely dangerous.”

  “Nope,” she said, “I’ll take this as a nightcap. To help me get back to sleep again.”

  “Sex is a way to go back to sleep?”

  “God, I hope so,” she said. “I’m so tired, and I’m so wound up that I don’t even know what I’m worried about.”

  “Are you worried?”

  “I am,” she said. “It just feels like it’s not over.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  She looked at him. “Why can’t we grab a few minutes just for ourselves?”

  “I didn’t say we can’t,” he said. He gave himself thirty seconds to think about it, and then he stood up with her in his arms. And, making her laugh, he carried her all the way back to the bedroom, where he tossed her gently on the bed. She immediately popped up onto her knees and pulled her nightie up over her head and tossed it onto the bed beside her. He stared, his breath frozen, desperately trying to escape his chest. “My God,” he murmured, “you’re just gorgeous.”

  She was lean, trim, full-breasted, and gorgeous. He gave a happy sigh, as he quickly pulled off his T-shirt over his head and chucked off his jeans and boxers. He stepped forward, and she stared at him in surprise.

  “Talk about gorgeous,” she murmured, her hands reaching eagerly for his erection. He tried to step back, but she had already caught him, her hands avid as they explored his hips, then his testicles and his groin. When they slipped down his thighs to come back up between his thighs, he shuddered and laid her back down on the bed. “It’ll be well over,” he said. “You can’t do that to me.”

  “Well, I can,” she said, wrapping a thigh around him and rubbing her pelvis against him. “Because I want this as much as you do. At the same time, it feels like we’ve been heading for this stage for a long time.”

  “We’ve hardly known each other but several days,” he protested.

  “I know,” she said, “but what we do know, we like each other.”

  “No arguments there,” he said, his voice thick. He kissed her rather desperately. But, when she wrapped her thighs around his hips and started to rub at a faster and faster pace, he groaned and pushed his weight down against her. “Slow down,” he whispered. “Slow down.”

  She smiled, looked up, kissed him gently, and said, “Nope, not going to.”

  Chapter 15

  No way in hell would Eva slow down. She felt the passion riding her hard and fast. She flipped him over onto his back, and, before he had a chance to react, she lowered herself onto his shaft and ground her hips tight against his. She gasped and cried out, arching her back, as the first of the shock waves shuddered through her. He reached up, held her hips tight, and ground up higher against her, sending even more shock waves through her.

  While she still shuddered, he slowly explored the heart of her, open and waiting, spreading the moisture around, gently teasing the tiny nub before his hand slid up over her belly to cup and explore her breasts. When he finally couldn’t stand it, he sat up and pulled her toward him, so he could awkwardly suckle her breasts, first one and then the other, showering each nipple with his attention.

  Feeling his way, he explored and stroked that space between her buttocks and upper spine and over her shoulders and down and around her arms. When he finally lay beneath her, shuddering again, his hips moving, driving up slowly and slowly, she leaned over and grabbed his shoulders and whispered, “Ready for round two?”

  “You might be,” he said, “but I’m desperate for round one.” And he lunged upward. She took over the rhythm and started to ride, slow, deep, then long and fast. And, when he exploded beneath her, she collapsed on top of him, feeling the shock waves once again rippling through her. She lay atop him, covered in sweat, enjoying the peace and the release of the tension. “That,” he said, “was beautiful.”

  “It was,” she said. She yawned and said, “Now you know something? I might go to sleep.”

  He snorted. “That’s fine,” he said. “You get to. I don’t.”

  She laughed. “You’re right.” And then rolled over.

  Diesel pulled the blankets up over her, kissed her tenderly on the temple, and said, “Just sleep.” He got up, put on his boxers and jeans, and stepped out into the living room. They’d left the front door open. As he stepped out onto the deck and took several deep breaths, something cold and hard and round and metal was shoved against his spine.

  He didn’t move for the longest moment. And then slowly, he turned. With his hands in the air, he faced somebody he’d never seen before. “Interesting,” he said. “Hired gun or somebody who’ll do the job himself?”

  “I’ll do the job myself,” said the guy in front of him.

  “And do I get to know who you are?”

  “I’m her boss. “Everybody started to make inquiries into my wife’s position in the country and in the company and then her ties to Chin
a,” he said. “Of course they look at that. They always see me as a dupe. I’m nobody’s dupe.”

  And, at that, Diesel nodded. “Of course not,” he said, “but she was a really good cover, wasn’t she?”

  “She was. I was born in China. We knew each other when we were children and always planned to get married,” he said. “We set this up a long time ago. And because she’s not involved, nobody can blame her for anything or tie her to anything.”

  “It still doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

  “Nope, but we’ve had a high turnover. I’m sure Eva told you that,” he said. “And mostly because I was singling out the decent scientists, hoping that we could find the proper cures over in China. But we never could. Eva was the next on the list to be tried.”

  “I didn’t realize Paul and Marge both worked for you.”

  “They did. She didn’t tell you that? Not the same location though.”

  “No, not so clearly,” he said, frowning. “But then I didn’t actually ask.” He shook his head. “What a fool.”

  “Yeah, you see? A bright young man, like you, can get completely sidetracked by a woman.” He said, “That’s why my wife does her job so well. She sidetracks everybody into thinking something completely different, and then, when they start looking at her connections, and they get suspicious, they can’t find anything. So it all eases away again.”

  “Whereas you’re in it together,” he said.

  “Yep, our company’s failing. I have to keep pulling these tricks to get more investors. We’re about to shut it all down, go bankrupt actually,” he said, “and that’s a good thing.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because, once we’re bankrupt, nobody will take too much notice,” he said. “We’ll go back to China, and I’m not exactly sure what we’ll do from there,” he admitted. “I know some of the company men over there aren’t very happy with us. Because of what happened. But it’s not our fault that Eva escaped. Matter of fact, we’ll blame that on you.”

  “And you’d be right,” Diesel said mildly. “You would be very right. But that doesn’t stop here or now. Why come here and take her out?”

  “Well, we can’t have any threads left, can we? And then everybody involved in that lab is truly gone,” he said. “That’s just the way of the world.”

  “So why are you not gone?”

  “Well, because I am one of the bosses,” he said.

  Diesel smiled and shook his head. “No.” He said, “You were one of the bosses as long as you were delivering. You’re no longer delivering, and you’ve caused a problem, so you know you’re about to be eliminated yourself.”

  “Well, if anybody else worked for us, then that would be the truth, but I’m definitely the boss,” he said, “and I call the shots.”

  “I’m surprised you’re here, doing the work yourself.”

  “I would let my brother-in-law do it because he really wanted to, but I figured that, if anybody saw another Asian moving around the countryside, that would be too memorable.”

  “Yes, it would,” he said. “So what’s the plan here?”

  “That’s easy. It’ll be a murder-suicide. I’ll shoot her, set you up for it, and then you’ll shoot yourself.”

  “Wow, and why would I want to do that?”

  “The oldest reasons in the book,” he said. “You fell in love. She was just using you, and you couldn’t take it. In a fit of anger, you killed her. Once you realized what you had done, you couldn’t live with yourself, and you killed yourself.”

  Diesel stared at him in surprise. “That cut-and-dried, huh?”

  “Life really is cut-and-dried,” he said. “Those with power use it. Those without want it and try everything they can do to get it. And we spend all our time making sure we hang on to it.”

  “Got it,” he said. “Where’s your wife now?”

  “She’s in town, waiting for me,” he said. “We’ve already shut down everything. My brother-in-law’s doing the last of it now.”

  “And all because Eva escaped?”

  “Of course. If we’d managed to take her out over there, then we wouldn’t have this problem. Yet you managed to get her back here again, so I’ll blame you for all this.”

  “Right,” he said, “sorry to hear that.” He nodded toward the doorway. “And of course you have to take me out before you go after her.”

  “Of course,” he said.

  At that, another voice entered the fray. “Isn’t that just too bad then,” Eva said, leaning against the doorway.

  Her boss turned to look at her and immediately backed up, so his gun could cover both of them.

  She didn’t even appear concerned. She leaned against the door, her arms crossed over her nightie. “You know what? I kept considering why you would do this, and I just didn’t have any idea. But I knew something was wrong. I knew a connection was here that I just couldn’t put two and two together.”

  “Well, that’s why I’m the boss, and you’re not,” he said.

  “Really?” she said, with a smile. “I don’t think so.”

  He looked at her, confused. “Why are you not worried?” he asked.

  “What’s to be worried about?” she said. “I trust Diesel.”

  Diesel looked at her, seeing the relaxed, almost too relaxed, attitude in her stance and heard the ever-so-slight owl call behind him. “You know something?” he said, looking over at her boss. “I don’t even remember what your name is. But, considering that your wife is close by, are there any last words you wanted to say to her?”

  “What are you talking about?” he said irritably. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Oh, you are,” he said. “You just don’t know it yet.”

  “That’s BS. I’m the one with the gun.” He motioned at him. “Get back into the cabin right now.”

  “And if I say no?”

  The gunman lifted his gun and said, “I will shoot you right now,” he said. “Enough of this. Go back inside.”

  Diesel looked over at Eva, smiled, and said, “Three, two, one.” And she dashed back inside, and he dropped to the deck.

  A single shot fired out, and, as Diesel watched, the gunman stopped and stared, even as a red circle appeared in his forehead, and then he crumpled to the ground. The boss didn’t even fire his gun, his finger never even clenched the trigger. It was all over in half a second.

  Diesel bounced to his feet and kicked the handgun away. He immediately called out to Jerricho, “The wife is the other half of the team, and she’s probably at the driveway.”

  Jerricho disappeared.

  Diesel raced inside and asked Eva, “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Eva said, shivering. “I contacted Jerricho.”

  “Perfect,” he said. “You did right.”

  “Oh, my God,” she said. “If I had gone back to work …”

  “They would have taken you out, yes. We’ll get the whole story as we investigate further,” he said, “but the wife’s brother’s also involved. He’s been doing this for a while. You didn’t tell me that Paul used to work with you.”

  “Well, yes, he did a long time ago.”

  “You have any idea how long Paul worked for your boss? Both Paul and Marge worked for the same company.”

  “Oh, my God,” she said. “Marge, too?”

  “Marge used to work at your company too,” he said. “The boss has been sorting through his employees and choosing who would go to the Chinese lab.”

  “And it was all for what?”

  “Money,” he said. “They didn’t have enough money to keep this company going. He figured China would be better, and, if he didn’t have to pay any wages, it would be better yet again.”

  She stared at him in shock. “Kidnapped just … just to save him money, save him business expenses?” she said, hopelessness in her voice.

  He opened his arms, and she raced into them. “Yes,” he said, “just for money.”

  She burst into t
ears, and he held her close. “I had such high hopes,” she said, “when I went into this industry.”

  “And there’s no reason,” he said, “that you have to give up on that either.”

  She nodded, and he saw that it would take a toll on her. She looked up at the main cabin and said, “Do you think my father’s okay?”

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” he said, “but we can go check on him.”

  She smiled, nodded, and said, “We need to make sure that we catch the other half of that lovely relationship,” she said.

  They heard another owl call at that time, cutting through the silence, and Diesel said, “And that’s Jerricho saying that he’s got her.”

  Eva raced inside, pulled on some clothes, and, as she reached out and grabbed his hand. “It’s too unbelievable. After everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been through,” she said, “to even think that this was possible?”

  “I know,” he said, “and I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault,” she said. “It’s … None of it’s your fault.”

  “Well, it isn’t, but it is,” he said, “and the end result is, it’s all good now.”

  “As long as my father’s okay,” she said. And, as they walked up, Jerricho held on to the woman being forced to come toward them. Her gaze was wide, huge, and she wore a tight gag, and her hands were tied up behind her. Jerricho looked over at Diesel and said, “I’ve put a call out for a pickup.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’ll go check on Greg.” He walked into the cabin, found Greg sound asleep, but, as it was almost five o’clock, chances were he wouldn’t stay asleep for long. Diesel returned to join Jerricho and said, “Let’s take them up to the road and have the pickup there. Let’s keep the ugliness out of here, as much as we can.”

  Eva looked at him, smiled, and said, “Thank you for that.”