Montana Fire Read online

  Max pulled back, his eyelids half closed. He fumbled with the foil package. As soon as he extracted the rubber from its case, he peeled it down over his cock. Why couldn’t she remember to ask if she could do the honors? It was Max’s fault for distracting her.

  He tugged off her jeans taking her panties with it, and then lifted her onto the counter. Drawing open her legs, he bent over. His fingers dug into her thighs as he swiped his rough tongue across her slit. His lick caused spasms of electricity to ignite her already burning body. Her breath caught and her mind swirled. This was where she needed to be.

  “I love how you taste.” Max dipped his tongue into her opening and rubbed her clit with the pad of his thumb. She nearly lifted off the counter.

  She grabbed his hair and yanked hard, unsure whether she could control herself for much longer. “I need you.”

  Max straightened, slid her to the floor, and turned her around. He grabbed her hips, and with a quick pull, Jamie’s body was parallel to the ground, her arms outstretched.

  “I want to savor every part of you.” He placed his cock at her wet entrance and plucked her nipples. “What you do to me, girl.”

  He pinched the tips again, sending ripples of electric pulses straight between her thighs. Then he impaled her.

  “Dear God in heaven.” Her cry came out strangled. Without thinking, she clamped down hard on his cock.

  “Jamie. Don’t. I can’t hold off much longer.”

  She couldn’t either. She pressed her hips back against him, and Max drove into her hard and fast, setting her body on fire. She didn’t need an expert to tell her the cause of the blaze. It was all Max Gruden.

  Jamie dropped her head and let him transport her to heaven. Between him lavishing his attention on her nipples and turning on every nerve ending in her body, Jamie let herself go. She floated and soared, blocking out her fears. She was in a different world. With her eyes shut, pinpricks of light burst in her vision.

  “I’m close, honey. Hold on.”

  She wanted to go over the edge with him. Grabbing onto the counter with all her might, she arched her back and gave into her desires. Passion, pleasure, and lust filled her. When he slipped a hand between her legs and pressed on her clit, her tiny button lit her up. Her climax swooped in and took over her mind.

  Max pressed his chest against her back and wiggled her little pearl again. Each time he shifted his weight, his muscles rippled, causing more fireworks to go off inside her. Max grunted a second before his cock expanded and stretched her wide. He detonated his hot cum into the condom.

  “Jamie, Jamie.” He lowered his lips onto her neck and nibbled. For the next few minutes, as he held her tight, her world shrunk. She was at peace.

  Max finally slipped his cock out and stepped over to the sink. Water ran behind her. “Let’s clean you up.”

  Her legs were like rubber, and she had to lean against the counter for support. “We forgot to eat.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I just had my feast.”

  Jamie laughed. Where had he been her whole life?

  * * *

  By the time they dressed, reheated the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, and ate, it was late afternoon. “I need to call Sasha. I’m worried about her.” Jamie pulled out her burner phone. “Shit.”

  Max stilled. “What is it?”

  “I don’t have her home number.” She snapped her fingers. “No wait, I do. Sasha wrote it down for me on a scrap of paper in case I needed a ride home from the bar the other night. It may still be in my purse.” Jamie rushed to the bedroom and brought her bag back to the kitchen table. She stuck her hand in the morass, but failed to find it. “Stupid mess.”

  Frustrated, she dumped everything out onto the tabletop and separated the contents. In the middle of the pile was the piece of paper she was looking for. “Here it is.”

  Max picked up a yellow movie toy. “What is this?”

  “You don’t recognize this little fellow?”

  “’Fraid not.”

  “It’s a rubber minion from the movie Despicable Me. I found it in my coat pocket right after I treated Katie Danvers. I figured she slipped it in there after I told her mom that part of Katie’s problem might be that she put too much unclean stuff in her mouth. She’s six and the cutest thing. I put it in my purse, so that when she came back for her next treatment, I could return it to her.”

  Max’s brows pinched. “Do you always wear your coat when you treat your patients?”

  Jamie’s mind spun. “No. Never. The free clinic has good heat. Maybe I’d forgotten to take if off, though that had never happened before.”

  “But you remember taking it out of your coat pocket and putting this in your purse?”

  What was she missing? “I do, but at the time, I didn’t think about how it got there. The only child I’d treated that day was Katie, so I assumed she must have given it to me.”

  Max tugged on it and it separated. “It’s not a toy. It’s a flash drive.”

  Her heart sank as her mind spun. A flash drive? Oh, shit. “You don’t think Jonathan—I mean Vic—slipped it in my pocket, do you?” She recreated the last time she’d seen him. “Oh, my God.”

  Max placed a hand on her shoulder. “What is it?”

  “The day of the robbery, I’d brought food for both Vic and Larry. Only Larry hadn’t shown up yet. I was bending over to put the bags on the ground, when a gust of wind pushed me forward. As I tried to regain my balance, Vic reached up to steady me. I remember thinking how strong his grip was.”

  “Could he have slipped this in your pocket then?”

  She couldn’t be certain. “It’s possible.”

  “The only way the terrorists would know you had this was if they saw Vic put it there.”

  She replayed that moment. “Right before the gust of wind made me stubble, Vic looked off to the side. He’d just told me a rather funny knock-knock joke, but his smile completely disappeared for a moment. Do you think he saw someone he suspected was a terrorist? Is that why he gave it to me? Shit. He had to have known they’d come after me.”

  “Not necessarily, honey. If you didn’t feel him place the drive in your pocket, he might have thought the observer only saw him help steady you.”

  “I hope so.”

  “We need to take a look at what’s on here,” he said.

  “Do you have one here? My computer’s at Hanks.” Her heart was pounding harder than ten jack hammers.

  “No, but I know where we can use one. Get dressed. There’s an Internet café a few towns over. We’ll be safe there.”

  She liked the word “safe,” but there was an undercurrent of anxiety that threatened to push her panic button. Jamie shoved back her chair and dashed into the bedroom to bundle up. Getting out twice in one day was a real treat, but only if it was for fun.

  Max was waiting for her when she stepped back into the main room.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  He seemed to ask that a lot. “As much as I can be.”

  Max hugged her. “I know it’s tough, but there’s no way they can know Hank and I have switched vehicles.”

  “What if they come after Hank and force the answer out of him?” Putting anyone in danger would cause her endless guilt.

  “He’s tougher than he looks.”

  “Easy for you to say. You won’t be the one facing those terrible men. They have guns. Remember they shot and killed Yolanda.”

  He waved the drive. “Maybe there’s nothing on this.”

  “You don’t believe that.”

  He locked up and led her to the camper. “Doesn’t matter what I believe. We both need to relax. Acting nervous at the café will only make people talk. We’re visitors. People will notice us more.”

  She’d been to small towns like that before. He said the café was only a few towns over, but in Montana that could be miles. “How far away is this Internet café?” Jamie hopped up in and secured her seatbelt.

  “Twenty min
utes maybe. Kind of depends on whether the roads have been cleared or not.” On the way down to Hank’s store, Max kept quiet. From the way his cheeks were moving, he was thinking. “I’m betting Vic planned on retrieving the flash drive from you the next day, with you none the wiser.”

  She blew out a breath. Max always was able to see the glass half full. His background in law enforcement gave him a good perspective. “I hope that’s true.”

  For the next few minutes, she let her mind wander over to the other events that had recently occurred to see if in light of this new evidence, she might figure something else out.

  Jamie sat up and twisted toward Max. “Remember, I mentioned that I gave Becky a present in front of Banner’s Bar?”

  He glanced at her. “What about it?”

  “It was a small pin. The box might have been two inches by one inch at the most. I slipped it out of my coat pocket and handed it to her. While we were standing outside the bar door, another friend came toward us, and Becky slipped it in her pocket. Could the man in the baseball cap have seen me pass something to her? Did he think it might have been the flash drive? Is that why he followed her?”

  Max’s lips lifted slightly. “I think you should be a cop. You have good instincts. We may never know, but it is logical.”

  “I can do logical sometimes, but I’m more comfortable with the emotional half of my brain.”

  Max reached out and rubbed her leg. “I like that there are two sides to you.”

  Max had such a wonderful calming effect on her. He always could bring her thinking in line with reality. After all she’d been through, Jamie should be a complete mess, but she wasn’t. If she’d been alone when she found her house broken into or learned of Yolanda’s death, Jamie might have had a nervous breakdown.

  Max glanced over at her. “Did you call your friend, Sasha?”

  “Crap. Finding the flash drive distracted me.”

  “I understand.”

  “I’ll call her later. I don’t think I could keep from telling her something.” Jamie picked up the flash drive. “If this is from Vic Hart, what do you suppose is on it?”

  Max’s fingers tightened on the wheel. “Something damned important.”

  “He might have found out the location of the terrorist cell and maybe even their identities.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice, but I kind of doubt it. If he did have that kind of information, he would have called it in. Putting information on an electronic device is risky.”

  “I never saw him with a phone, and he certainly didn’t have a computer, unless he kept it in his backpack.”

  “Undercover isn’t always a twenty-four hour a day job. I’m betting Vic slept in a warm bed most nights and drove a nice car, compliments of the US Government. He could have risen very early in the morning, put on his makeup, and parked close to town. He then could have limped over to his usual spot near the clinic with no one the wiser.”

  “He didn’t limp.” Which meant he might not even have shrapnel in his leg. “Why do you suppose he picked the clinic area?”

  “That, my dear, can only be answered by Vic.”

  She exhaled, picturing the tube down his throat and the saline drip into his arm. “I hope he’s awake.”

  “I could call Dan from my burner phone, but I think the less contact the better. Truthfully, Vic’s condition doesn’t affect us right now. Agent Forbes and his men will make sure Vic stays safe.”

  She remembered Max telling Dan to call him if something came up. “Dan will need your new number, too.”

  Max chuckled. “You seem to forget that I was a cop. I already contacted him as well as Trent.”

  “I hope they can keep a secret.”

  “Don’t worry.”

  It took them about twenty-five minutes to reach the cute town of Winding River. Along the way one of her favorite songs came on the radio, and she turned up the volume. Pushing aside all of her worries, she hummed the refrain.

  “You a big Toby Brunnell fan?”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “There’s something about country western songs that speak to me.”

  “His song, Montana Fire, is one of my favorites.”

  She looked over at him. “Mine, too!” Max smiled, those dimpled cheeks sending her mind in a different direction.

  He shook his head. “It’s kind of sad, really. The hero in the song seems so in love with his fantasy woman, but she doesn’t have a clue.”

  Jamie leaned back her head. “Yeah, but she figures it out in the end. It has a happy ending.”

  Max laughed. “You are a romantic.”

  “Very true.” They entered the town—all four blocks of it. Few people were parked in the street and none were walking around. “It looks deserted.”

  “It’s early still. I bet around dinner time and afterwards, the place will be bustling. Or at least as bustling as a town of two thousand can be.” Max cut the engine and jogged over to her side.

  Jamie slipped her purse over her shoulder and let him help her down. The snow had piled up on the sidewalk, so she had to walk carefully to avoid slipping. Once inside the café, Jamie relaxed. Comfy sofas and mismatched chairs were scattered in the front half of the café. A long table with four computers hugged the right wall. Fortunately, none of the stools were taken. This must be their lucky day.

  “Want coffee and a snack?” he asked.

  A food counter was located in back. Tea tins lined the wall, but it was the aroma of coffee beans and chocolate that piqued her interest. “Sure.” They went up to the glass counter, where there was everything from cookies to pies to tea sandwiches.

  The cashier came over. “What can I get you two?”

  While Jamie was a bit nervous to eat, the food looked too good to pass up. “I’ll have the fudge brownie and a black coffee.”

  “Same for me,” Max said.

  Max paid—again. Jamie wanted to address his need to take care of her, but she wasn’t in a position to do much since they had to pay in cash, and she was a credit card girl.

  “I’ll bring it over when it’s ready,” the server said.

  Max escorted Jamie to the computer that was the farthest from the window. They tapped the mouse and the computer sprang to life. “Go ahead and plug it in,” he said.

  Jamie’s stomach twisted. “If there is some juicy info, what are we going to do with it?”

  “I have Agent Forbes’s card, but let’s take a look first.”

  Jamie loaded the drive and waited. There were two files. She clicked the first one, and it sprang open. Max leaned closer and scanned the contents. “Fuck me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The document on the flash drive contained a list of names. Next to each one was an item and an amount. Only these weren’t the type of things one would buy in a grocery store.

  She ran her finger across the screen and started reading quietly. “Rich Phillips—duct tape: twelve rolls. Justin Andrews—hydrogen peroxide: four gallons.” The list went on and on. “What do you think this means?”

  Max leaned close and whispered. “It looks like ingredients used to make a bomb. Or rather, a lot of bombs.”

  Her stomach twisted. “Holy shit.”

  “We’ve got to get this to the Feds, ASAP. Open the second file. Then we’ll make a copy.” His words came out clipped.

  She didn’t want to ask what he thought might happen to the flash drive, but having a backup made sense. Jamie clicked on the second icon. Neither said a word for a minute. The information made less sense than the first list. “What would row 27, seat 3 mean?”

  “It looks like theater seat numbers.”

  “You think a theater could be their intended target?” Jamie’s throat nearly closed.

  Max shrugged a shoulder. “Or a football stadium, or any large venue that has numbered seats. Is there any more information? A date would be extremely helpful.”

  She scrolled down. “There’s nothing more. Just this one page.”

  “Shi
t.”

  “Wait a minute. Look.” Jamie pointed to the bottom right hand portion of the screen. “This could be a date: 5/3.”

  “It’s possible. No year, though. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s this year, assuming it is a date.”

  “What do you think CF is?” The initials were centered at the bottom.

  Max leaned back in his seat. “Given the location on the page, it could be the initials of the person who sent this.” He shifted his gaze toward the window, his fingers tapping out a beat.

  Jamie read the list again, trying to think of all the places that had a large number of seats. “The university has a football stadium.” The idea that a large population could be killed sent chills up her spine.

  “I can list a few places, too. Think of all the movies theaters in town and school gyms, not to mention our indoor soccer stadium.”

  She was more scared now than before. “Now what?”

  The waitress came over with their coffee and dessert. “Here you go.”

  Jamie looked up at her and smiled. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, hon.”

  If anyone came in and asked questions about either of them, Jamie didn’t want the woman to remember that Jamie had been the nervous lady with the blonde hair. Absently, she fingered her light-colored strands. “You know I’ve always wanted to be a redhead.”

  Max’s brows rose. “You’d look great as one, though I like you just the way you are.”

  He had a knack of boosting her confidence just when she needed it. “Thank you.”

  “You’re thinking you want to be a little less identifiable. Is that it?”

  He caught on fast. “Yes. It’s bad enough being short and skinny. I’m rather hard to miss, but if I dyed my hair and changed my makeup—or rather wore makeup—the bad men might look right past me.”