Jacob(15)

Chapter Seven


Tori sat waiting patiently outside Jacob’s office and laughed silently as someone named Gabriel tore him a new one. She could see Jacob clearly through the open door. Anyone within thirty feet could hear the speaker phone.

“Jacob King, what in the fucking hell do you think you are doing? Why did I get a call from the D.C. doctors advising me you’d checked yourself out of the hospital against medical advice?”

“So they called you about that? Huh. Figures, asshole doctors.”

Tori watched Jacob run his fingers across his scalp and wince as he leaned back in the desk chair. The speaker phone vibrated with the tirade spewing from the other end of the line.

“Do you honestly think you can keep secrets from me? Your medic is still on my payroll. It only took one call and I heard about that emergency run he made in the middle of the night. Now, God damn it! What the hell’s going on?”

“Calm down, Gabriel. It’s not as bad as—”

“Calm down! Fuck that! What in the hell did you think you were doing? I pay you to run all overseas operations, not lead them. You keep taking yourself out of action and straying from mission objectives and that paycheck will stop. Do you copy me, Mr. King?”

Jacob shut the door to his office, but Tori still heard the man called Gabriel continue to reprimand him.

“I finally get you home from that piece of shit third world country and you release yourself against medical orders? Your own men didn’t know you had checked out. Let’s just top that off with the fact your medic had to respond to your house to patch you up! If you ever, I repeat, ever, break protocol again, you’re fired. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”



*



On the drive to the airport an hour later, Tori hid her amusement. The silent mass of raging testosterone beside her had had his ass handed to him. Bet that didn’t often happen. When Jacob pulled his Hummer onto the flight line, she saw a small huddle of people by the private jet’s open door waiting to board. The men looked familiar as Jacob introduced them. Tori shook Chief’s hand. The man’s expression never changed as he greeted her. Dixon and Drake, the identical twins she vaguely remembered seeing on the aircraft that night both smiled and took her hand. Doc nodded pleasantly as he passed her on the way to the jet. As a unit, there was no mistaking these men for anything but soldiers and Jacob was their leader. The men seemed to know not to engage him during the five-hour flight to Rapid City. The ass chewing he received put him in a foul mood, but he never released her hand, keeping her firmly by his side the entire flight.

A mere five hours later, Guardian Security’s private jet landed at the small Rapid City, South Dakota airport. The ground crew marshalled the multi-million dollar aircraft to the private parking ramp. Tori watched out of the jet’s window as two black SUVs pulled alongside the plane. When the bulkhead door opened, she assessed the men as they disembarked ahead of her. If she saw them on the street in Rapid City, she would never know they weren’t born and raised in South Dakota. The jeans, boots, shirts, jackets, cowboy hats, and baseball caps were all worn and comfortable looking. Not a drugstore cowboy in the lot.

After their equipment and luggage had been loaded into the vehicles, they headed north to the ranch. Tori drove in the lead and turned off the interstate down an unmarked road. After an hour on the gravel road, Doc hung over the front seat. “Hey, Mom, are we there yet?”

Tori laughed and pointed. “Just over that ridge.”

When they crested the ridge, she knew what the men saw. Dark cross-beamed fences sliced through golden pastures forming a sharp contrast to the rolling hills around the ranch house. The cattle and the out-buildings radiated from the hub that centered on the massive log home and barn. The house stood two stories tall and boasted over seven thousand square feet. Her dad built every square foot of the dwelling with pine trees from their land. Her mom used to tease him, calling it the only log-cabin mansion in the state. As Tori pulled up in the yard, several dogs raced out from under the huge wraparound porch, barking wildly. She gave a sharp whistle that settled the animals down at once.

Her father came out of the barn, wiping his hands as he walked towards her. Tori skipped up to her dad and kissed him on the cheek. “Daddy, I want you to meet my friends. This is Doc, and yes, he really is a doctor. This is Chief. He is a communications and computer guru. One of these guys is Dixon and one is Drake, but I have no idea who is who. By all accounts, they fly just about anything and play with things that go boom.”

Her dad shook each man’s hand. He’d always said he could tell a lot by the way a man shook hands. He must have liked the way each man met his eyes and shook his hand solid. Tori put her arm around Jacob and smiled. “Daddy, this is Jacob King, the man we talked about.”

Her father nodded and shook Jacob’s hand.

“Mr. Marshall, thank you for taking us on. Hopefully, we won’t be too much of an inconvenience,” Jacob said.

Each man held the other with a steady look and a trace of a smile crossed her dad’s face. “Nope, won’t let you be. You are important to my daughter. That makes you important to me. Welcome to the middle of nowhere. Tori, take these men to the house and show them their rooms. Keelee will be back by sundown. She rode to the south pasture with Danny to fix the fence line before we head out tomorrow.

“Is Danny feeling better?”

Frank shrugged. “Showed up for work.”

Tori smiled and kissed him on the cheek again. “Okay, we’ll see you at dinner.”

He nodded towards the men and went back down to the barn. Jacob looked at Dixon, Drake, and Chief. “Head on down after Mr. Marshall and see if there is anything you can help out with. Doc and I’ll handle the luggage. You can find your rooms later.” The three men nodded, turned heel, and headed to the barn.

“That was nice, Jacob. I don’t think my dad would expect that.” Jacob nodded, but his eyes had caught the riders coming up the south valley and he turned to Tori in question. “That will be my sister Keelee and our full-time ranch hand Danny. Come on, it will take them at least thirty minutes to get here.”

Jacob gave the horizon another glance and grabbed his duffle and Tori’s weekend bag in one hand. Doc grabbed the other four duffle bags and followed.



*



The house was larger than Jacob had suspected. The living room had four, massive couches, numerous overstuffed recliners, and an abundance of comfortable chairs arranged in conversation groups. A stone fireplace took up the entire back wall and its opening was bigger than Jacob’s Hummer. The pine floors were cool. The feel of the house was comfortable, not stuffy. Something he’d like to have in the Georgetown house but the damn designer demanded authenticity and his brother Jared had caved. The grand stairway separated into two individual staircases going up to the second level. The floor split in half, rooms on the right and left. Damn it. If her room is on the other side of this fucking stairway, I’m going to go insane.

Tori led them down the long hall on the right and put Dixon, Drake, Chief and Doc in consecutive rooms. Jacob’s room was around the corner and hell yeah, next door to hers. Each room had its own bathroom and walkthrough closet with built in dresser. The king-sized beds were dwarfed by the expansive rooms. Impressive build. Enough space for a man to stretch out and relax. Doc put a duffle in each of the rooms and headed down to the SUV for the rest of bags.

Tori opened the door to Jacob’s room and stood inside. He dropped the bags and grabbed her as he kicked the door shut. Seven hours being with her and not being able to be in her. Too fucking long. “Those tight jeans you’re wearing are killing me. I need you.”

She lifted her arms and placed them around his neck. “And I need you, but we don’t want to reinjure that shoulder. Doc is getting tired of patching you up, and I’d hate to know what Gabriel would have to say.”

Who in the hell cares about Doc or Gabriel? “Baby, I have that covered. I have countless ways we can make love without worrying about this damned thing. I haven’t pulled the stitches yet, have I?” His wicked grin and waggled eyebrows punctuated his statement.

Tori lifted up and kissed him soundly. “No, but you should clear it with Doc first.” Her taunt lit up his target square in the bull’s eye.

“Like hell I will!”

Tori giggled and twisted out of his grasp. “Fine, but I’m not responsible if you start bleeding again.”

He stalked across the room and grabbed her waist pulling her backwards. “Oh baby, you are definitely responsible.”

Tori pushed back into him as his one good hand traveled up from her waist and cupped one of her breasts. He pinched her nipple and a soft moan escaped her lips. “Is your old man going to have a problem with us?”

Tori smiled as she reached behind her and grabbed his hips bringing him closer to her ass. “No. Do you see that door?” Jacob stopped kissing her neck long enough to look up. He whispered, “Yeah, so?”

She drew a sharp breath and shuddered as he found an erogenous zone by her ear. “Ahh…that door connects this room with my room. We just need to be discrete.”

A knock caused them to pull apart and Jacob growled low in his throat. “Come in.”