Love at First Mate - Badlands Territory

“How did you guys know to come?” I look at each of them and Wayne answers.

“We were all at Josephine’s. Howard was picking up takeout for Myra and we were having a beer. That realtor stumbled in, looking rough. He said you and Wynter might be in trouble. From there, we headed this way.”

“Thanks.” I look at them wondering if they hadn’t showed, how thing would have turned out.

Wayne pipes up, nodding toward English. “We’ll clean up the garbage. Get Howard home.” He looks back at the house, then turns to Wynter. “Anything valuable in there, you might want to take it with you.”

“Why?” She looks around at the three of us, not understanding what’s about to happen.

“Come on.” I stand, reaching down to take her hand. “Anything inside the house you would miss if you never got to see it again?”

There’s confusion on her face, but instead of questioning, she nods. “Just one duffel bag. It’s in the big freezer in the basement…” She turns to head to the door but I pull her back, remembering what I did to the douche bag I left on the floor.

“I’ll get it. Stay here.”WynterRagnar paces outside on his front porch as I twist the towel back up on my hair and curl my legs under me, sitting on the sofa in his great room with a blazing fire going.

He’s been out there for a while. Taking calls, making calls... the lump in my throat begins to grow as I wonder whether we’ll both find ourselves on trial for at least some sort of crime before this is all over.

After all, three dead bodies have to draw some attention.

He comes through the door, his eyes tired, but he’s still as magnificent and sexy as ever shirtless wearing low slung jeans with nothing underneath and there’s a flutter of butterfly wings in my belly.

His wounds have almost healed already. There’s just light pink pulled flesh in the spots where the bullets entered. When I asked him earlier if we needed the hospital, at least to remove the bullets, he said no. I don’t understand everything about shifter healing yet, but for the moment, I don’t need to know all the secrets of this strange new life I’m living.

I just need to trust that Ragnar knows what he’s doing.

“And?” I query when he comes back inside after the phone calls.

“Well, if anyone comes looking, those three all had multiple warrants out, so they were probably trying to find a hideout up the mountain, when unfortunately they lost a fight with a grizzly.” He shrugs, coming to sit down on the sofa, reaching over to pull me onto his lap, facing him, my bare pussy against his already half-hard cock under the rough fabric of his Levis.

“That’s too bad. But…” I halt, anxiety still twisting in my gut over my contribution to the whole ‘no longer breathing’ situation. “If someone finds the bodies, one will have a gunshot wound. That’s not from a bear.”

“Listen.” Ragnar takes my face in his hands. “It’s taken care of. The boys made sure Orwell’s body would have no bullet hole, no bullet. Grizzlies do a lot of damage. Without going into details, let’s just say there’s not enough left of those guys for anyone to know otherwise. Your job right now is to trust me. Okay? From now on, we tell each other everything. Good, bad, ugly, dirty, happy, sad…that’s the rule. You feel it, think it, question it…I want to know. And that includes anything else about being on the run from arms deals and duffel bags full of money that they may or may not be coming to find.”

I nod as he slides one hand up my back the the towel off letting it fall to the floor then his fingers tangle in my hair, and when he tugs on it, the anxiety and worry immediately evaporate as I let out a long sigh.

“And, just so you know, there was a little electrical fire at your house.”

I jerk my head back, looking into Ragnar’s dark eyes. “My house?”

“It’s okay. Fire department got there in time to save the structure. The interior, especially the living room, will definitely need redecorating.” He rocks his head back and forth, then finishes. “More like re-building.”

I narrow my eyes as his other hand drops to my hip and he holds me from top to bottom.

“I have another question. Since we are being honest. Why did you push me away for the first month after we saw each other? If you knew we were mates, why did you keep running away every time you saw me?”

“I was scared.” His voice is thick, and I wait for him to tell me more, because I know there is more. “See, my father killed my mother.”

“Oh, God.” My hands fly to cover my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”