Rendezvous (Renegades 5)

“No, no,” Cam said. “We actually need you right here.”

“Um.” She smiled, shrugged. “Okay.”

“Not if you’re in the middle of something,” Keaton added. When she met his gaze, he said, “We know your work for Jillian comes first.”

A smiled lifted her lips, and she gave him the slightest nod. “I’m okay there.” Then to Russ, she asked, “What do you need?”

Keaton watched her expression as Russ explained the stunt. Her gaze met Keaton’s, searching for security, then lifted to the catwalk, twenty feet in the air, and followed it to the end. “Out there? You want me to stand out there?”

“You really don’t—” Keaton started, but she put up her hand.

“I’m just asking questions.”

Cam shoulder-cocked Keaton a couple of steps sideways, then put a hand in the middle of his back and shoved. “Let’s find a harness that will fit her.”

Keaton twisted to knock Cam’s hand away, and found his fellow Renegade grinning. “What are you smiling about?”

“Never seen you caught up in a chick. It’s fuckin’ funny, man.”

“Shut up. And don’t even think about starting that rumor.”

“Are you kidding?” Cam said, bending to pop the top on an equipment vault. “The way that cougar licks her chops when you’re around? She’d eat Brooke as an appetizer on her way to you. I may be young, but I’m not stupid. I saw that triangle when Brooke and Jillian stepped in the door and both of them looked at you.”

Cam pulled out a harness, tossed it aside, searched through, and grabbed another. Keaton knew this gear blindfolded. He pushed his hand into the dredges of the container, felt around, and pulled their smallest harness from the bottom.

Cam stood back, his face slack with awe. “How the fuck do you do that?”

“Practice. Years and years of practice.” He looked up at Cam. “Can other people see it?”

“What? That the cougar has a hard-on for you? Or that Brooke is head over heels?”

Head over heels? Keaton darted a look over his shoulder. Russ was talking a blue streak, but Brooke didn’t look like she was paying attention. She had a dreamy smile on her face, and her gaze was fixed on Keaton. The look ignited a burst of heat at the center of his body. One that filled his heart.

God, he hoped Cam was right. It would make getting Brooke to work with him on figuring out how to narrow their damn three-thousand-mile gap.

“Never mind,” Keaton told Cam. He stood and closed the gap between them. “Just make sure you keep your mouth shut. Jillian will fire Brooke if she thinks there’s something going on between us, and Brooke needs this job for reasons I can’t explain right now.”

“Sure, man. Okay. I get it.”

“Not a word.”

“Less than a word,” Cam said, serious. “I understand confidentiality.”

Keaton’s vision cleared, and he saw the steadfast, confident, former marine standing in front of him instead of his happy-go-lucky fellow Renegade.

“I’ve got your back, dude,” Cam said. “And I like Brooke.”

“I know you do.” Keaton exhaled. “I’m sorry. This situation sucks.”

Cam brought up his smile. “Brooke seems like the kind of chick who would dig this stunt.”

Keaton laughed. “She is.”

“Then let’s have some fun.”

When they returned with the harness, Russ was still explaining the stunt’s short clip, walking her through the steps. By the time they returned to center stage, Russ moved off to talk with the cameramen, Cam grabbed cables, and Keaton fitted Brooke’s harness.

“This is really a lot like zip-lining,” he told her, fastening the straps along her ribs, lowering his voice to murmur, “Damn you smell good.”