“You’re doing a great job, guys. Keep up the good work.”
“Kiss my ass, rookie,” one of the men responded.
Laughing loud and hard, Cole and Brad climbed back into the limo and shut the door.
Chapter 12
Caris
“I take it you all don’t like those men very much.” I eyed them curiously
“Oh, no.” Cole shook his head and wiped a tear from his eye. “Tony and Al are great. In fact, if I was back in Afghanistan, I’d want both of them, Ruben, and McCoy on my team. We just like busting each other’s balls every chance we get.”
“It’s a guy thing.” Syd chuckled.
“We need to have a penis to understand,” Mia scoffed.
“I see.” I grinned. “But then they probably wouldn’t like us as much.”
Mia leaned forward and gave me a high five, then sent Syd a warning glare. “You’d better not fuck up and lose her.”
“You mean I’d better not fuck up and lose her again.” Syd pulled me closer. “Trust me. I don’t plan on it.”
Pulses of hope exploded through me, but I quickly reined it back in. I couldn’t afford to get too close or too comfortable with Syd again. That didn’t necessarily mean I couldn’t submerge my heart in concrete and enjoy some much-neglected orgasmic ecstasy with him. Maybe I could talk him into making good on his threat to spank me. Anything would be better than my boring old fingers. Of course, it would only be a short-lived reprieve. Being tossed in a blender of danger didn’t change a damn thing. Once the threat had passed, Syd would be back on the road, performing for the masses, and I’d return home to fill coffee cups and deal with Shane’s annoying antics.
“You all right?” Syd asked as the limo pulled to a stop.
“Yeah,” I replied automatically before dipping my head and looking out the window. “Oh, wow. When you said lodge, I never expected… Wow. This is spectacular. It’s so beautiful, and…it’s so huge.”
“That’s what Mia says every night,” Ozzy chortled.
“Oh, I do, baby. Every night,” Mia mocked.
“Get your ass out of the car before I puke on your huge…ego.” Syd grinned.
Gathering my courage, I waited as everyone piled out of the limo. Syd stepped out and extended his good hand. Cursing my trembling fingers, I placed them in his palm and eased onto the paved drive. Cole and Brad were already in a deep conversation with a couple of mammoth suit-wearing men, while Mia and Ozzy were being surrounded by a huge group of men and women. Overwhelmed, I inched in closer to Syd. He slung his arm around my waist and held me tight as the group enveloped us, too. Everyone was talking at once, lobbing questions to Syd about his shoulder, the hospital, and details of the shooting. Through the cacophony, I heard Mia mention my name but wasn’t sure if she was talking to or about me.
Nerves singing, I felt so out of place I wanted to escape inside the safety of the limo and lock the doors.
“Save your welcomes and questions till later,” instructed a tall man with auburn hair and a thick Scottish accent standing on a massive front porch. The tall, willowy blonde beside him sent me a warm, welcoming smile before the man called out again, this time in a censuring tone, “Are you trying to give that fucknut more targets? Back inside. Now.”
Suddenly, a little boy with dark hair jumped off the porch and raced toward us, waving a small cowboy hat in his hand.
“Buncle Syd… Buncle Syd, I got new hat. We ride horsey now?”
Syd knelt down and greeted the excited tike, still charging like a bull.
“Whoa. Careful, cowboy. I got a hurt shoulder, see?” Syd pointed to the shoulder-pad of thick bandage beneath his blood-stained shirt.
“You got owie?”
“Yeah, a big one.” Cringing, he lifted the boy up in his good arm and stood. “I’ll take you riding, but not tonight. It’s late and the horsey is already asleep.”
Watching him with the boy had my heart melting and aching at once. I ached for the babies Syd and I once planned to raise and melted because I’d always suspected Syd would make an amazing father.
“Like you should be,” teasingly scolded a petite woman with fiery red hair and light blue eyes. Plucking the boy from Syd’s arms, she settled him on her hip as her expression sobered with concern. “Are you in much pain?”
“Not bad. I’ve got pain pills. I’ll be fine.”
She nodded, then stuck her hand out to