Neyla cast a glance around the tiny interior. “I can’t wait to find a suitable location for the first safe house. We can get a few untraceable cell phones, maybe a vehicle or two. Setting up a permanent base of operations over here will make all of our lives easier.”
“You’re riding…on that machine he drove in?” Rickert growled.
“With Asher. Yes.”
“I will not allow it.” He dragged himself to his feet and towered over her, the wool blanket slipping from his shoulders. He wore a leather kilt, and a weapons belt criss-crossed his bare chest. “It is dangerous and leaves ye totally exposed.”
“Allow?” Neyla glowered up at him, hands on her hips. Asher bit back a smile. This was not going to end well for Rickert. Didn’t he see that? “I appreciate that you’re worried for my safety, but we have no easy way of getting into town. And I don’t feel like hiking another zillion miles like we did to get here. The calls may result in nothing, but I’ve got to try. Besides, I’ve ridden on the back of a bike many times. I had a boyfriend who used to pick me up every day after school, so it’s not like I’m a motorcycle virgin.”
Rickert looked like he’d just bit into something sour. “Lass, do not tell me…what ye did with another man…before I was around. Makes me more miserable…than I already am.”
“Good. Then stop trying to tell me what to do and I won’t have to.”
“But what if ye happen to be—” His gaze slid to Asher, then he lowered his voice. “—pregnant, as the Fates have suggested?”
She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “If I am, then he or she will have a fun ride.”
Pregnant? Asher’s eyes widened. Rickert was going to be a father? “I…uh...um… She’ll use my helmet.”
“Thank you,” Neyla said, striding toward the door. “So when can we meet her?”
Rickert knew when to give up a losing battle and sighed. “Yes, we want to meet…this female…who swept you off your feet.”
Asher ran his hands through his hair. Swept off his feet? How could they know? They hadn’t even met her. Sure, he was attracted to her and had fun with her, but that was all. “She’s just someone I’ve been hanging out with recently. It’s nothing serious. Temporary, really. I haven’t known her for very long.”
“But long enough,” Rickert said.
Neyla gave Rickert a smile. “We both fought our feelings for each other, but the Fates had other things in store for us.”
That was crazy talk. “The Fates have nothing to do with this,” Asher said, shaking his head in frustration. Theirs was an old magic, gone from the world for centuries.
Rickert narrowed his eyes. “She’s somewhere back there, waiting for you, isn’t she?”
“I don’t know that she’s waiting for me. Olivia isn’t the type to wait for things to happen to her. But, the point is, I don’t get involved with women over here anymore, remember?”
Something silent passed between Rickert and Neyla and she exited the cabin. Rickert turned back to Asher. “Is this because of Jenny?”
Asher kept his head down and didn’t answer.
“You can’t let what happened to her prevent you from being with the woman you love,” Rickert told him. “If the Fates brought you and Olivia together, which, from what you told us, they most certainly did, and you fell in love with her, then you should respect that.”
Screw the Fates. Maybe he was falling for Olivia, but he didn’t have to act on those feelings other than spending a few nights in the sack together. If she thought her life was messed up before, with him it would only get worse—and much more dangerous. Hanging around an enemy target was the last thing someone on the run from the army needed to do. Her life was hard enough as it was.
“Bullshit,” he said. “Jenny and our unborn child died because of her association with me. I will not have another innocent person’s blood on my hands because of some feelings I may or may not have.” He massaged his forehead, trying to rub away those awful memories. “Do you blame me?”
“No, not at all,” his friend said quietly. “But that doesn’t mean I agree with you.”
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
CHAPTER 22
The stallion's hooves had been pounding out a steady cadence on the dirt road for almost an hour since the last stop. Vallenberg, the village where Asher grew up, was around the next bend.