the firelight. He’d asked her to marry him. He’d proposed. Her heart pounded and her lips parted, but he put a finger across them. “I meant it. Don’t say anything yet. This is serious business, and you need to think about it.”
She buried her face against his shoulder to stifle the giggles that rose in her throat. So the worst he could think of was that some days he wanted to be left alone? So did she. They each needed to be alone for different reasons, but she imagined that need for quiet would give them a peaceful life together. But if he wanted to wait for an answer, she would wait. Perhaps he needed the time to accustom himself to the idea, even though he was the one who had broached the subject.
Marriage. To him. Yes, please. Oh hell yes. Yes to the nth degree. Yes yes yes.
They lay quietly together. When she glanced up at him he was staring into the fire, his gaze distant. Proposing marriage was serious business, but she strongly suspected his thoughts had already moved on to the possible firefight looming tomorrow. People could get killed. He knew more about that, probably, than anyone else in the valley. Whatever battles he’d been in, he still carried them with him.
She could lose him tomorrow.
It was a special kind of hell, loving someone who was on the front line. Pride mingled with quiet terror, knowing that their second night together could be their last night together. Her hands tightened on him, her fingers digging into the hard muscles of his back.
His hand moved between her legs, rough fingers probing. “I can distract you for a while.”
Sela closed her eyes, sighed out a soft breath. “Yes, you can.”
Then he was inside her, moving, making her forget the world beyond this bed. His growling voice murmured against her ear, “I can’t get enough of you.”
Her orgasm rocked her to her core, and Ben was right behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
An hour before Lawrence’s scheduled meeting, Ben, Mike, Trey, and Cam were in place around the deserted crafts building, which was literally no more than a mile, as the crow flies, from Sela’s house. The curvy, hilly roads made it seem farther than it was. The layout of the surroundings was just as Leigh Kilgore had described it, providing them with adequate cover. He had weighed the anonymity of walking in, using the terrain as cover, against the benefit of having vehicles nearby in case they needed to get somewhere fast. He’d opted for driving to a barn about half a mile away and concealing their vehicles there.
He could’ve used more men, definitely, but the more who knew about the plan the more likely it was someone would say the wrong thing to the wrong person, deliberately or by accident, it didn’t matter. Not only that, concealment for more than four would have gotten exponentially more difficult. Four men were enough, in Ben’s opinion, and he instinctively trusted the other three, as well as the two guarding Carol’s house and the women in it.
Harley and Darren were guarding Carol’s house, where the women waited. Ben didn’t expect trouble, but damned if he wouldn’t plan for it. These fuckers had nearly killed Sela once, and once was enough.
There was no cover at the front of the building, a single-story dark-wood box that looked very much like a cheaply built mountain house. There was a faded sign near the road, advertising arts and crafts, as well as homemade jam. He didn’t know how long the business had been closed, but it had been long enough for bushes to grow up to the windows on the side, and for that sign to weather so much you had to be right up on it to read the words. Ben and the men he had chosen to be here were situated at the back and to both sides. Those who were positioned on the side could see most of the entrance, the front steps and most of the wide, rustic porch. The parking lot was in full view.
Ten minutes before the scheduled meet, Wesley and a second man arrived, went into the store. Ben couldn’t connect all the names with the faces, but Mike could. That didn’t do him any good, since Mike was on the other side of the building. They had walkies, but they were for emergency only; in such close proximity, no sense in taking a chance that someone would hear.
A few minutes