In Bed with Boone

“I’m terrified of snakes,” she said with a shake of her head and a shudder that seemed to rack her from head to toe. “And I don’t care if they’re poisonous or not. I hate all snakes equally.”

“Why?”

Her eyes met his. “I don’t have to have a specific reason,” she said. “A lot of people hate snakes.”

Boone waited a couple of minutes before leaving Jayne, shaking his head as he stood. It had been a pretty damn good scream.

He wasn’t terribly surprised to find a scowling Darryl waiting at the doorway between the hallway and the television-less living room. Marty and Doug were nowhere to be seen, but as he glared at Darryl, Boone heard laughter from the kitchen and then a splash of water. The boys were doing the dishes.

“I don’t get it,” Darryl muttered, his hard eyes on Boone and his arms crossed over his massive chest. “It doesn’t make any sense. You hauled that woman here last night because you wanted her in your bed. She was none too happy about the idea at the time, as I remember. And then this morning she’s calling you BooBoo and screaming her head off. Something stinks.”

Boone grinned. “What can I say? I’m good.”

Darryl was not impressed.

Boone’s grin faded. “She’s a society sweetheart who’s been handled with kid gloves all her life. Nobody’s ever touched her right, nobody’s ever made her scream. Since she’s never had one before, she thinks an orgasm means she’s in love. Three or four and we’re soul mates. Don’t worry about Jayne. I can handle her.”

“What are you going to do with her when we’re through here? I can’t have her coming to her senses and talking about what happened last night.”

“She won’t.”

“You can’t be sure…”

As far as Darryl knew, Richard Becker was a badass drug dealer from Atlanta, looking to move up a notch in the world. An association with Joaquin Gurza would make that happen. Thanks to big brother Dean—who was a deputy U.S. marshal and had all the right connections—and Detective Luther Malone, Boone had the background to make this cover tight. Airtight. Boone would protect Jayne Barrington with his life. Richard Becker wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way.

“When I’m finished with Jayne,” Boone said tightly, “I’ll take care of her. She’s the one with the illusions, not me. You have nothing to worry about.”

Darryl nodded, slightly mollified. “Glad to hear it.”

Boone headed past Darryl, intent on the coffeepot on the kitchen counter. He had to keep Darryl and the boys away from the news for the next four days. Could he do it? If Darryl found out that the man he’d shot was alive and that Jayne was a senator’s daughter, he’d panic and insist on doing away with her immediately. And since Boone had told them all that Jayne’s friend Jim was dead, Jayne would likely not die alone.

If they got that far, how was he going to get Jayne, the kid and himself out of here alive?

His life and his mission had just become very complicated.

Chapter 4

Jayne lay back in the bed and stared up at the ceiling. A shower had helped her to feel a little better, but still she wished for a change of clothes—her own clothes—as well as underwear, a soft nightgown, her hair dryer, and an entire package of chocolate-chip cookies. The soft ones.

She hated being shut up alone in this room, but it was better than facing Darryl and his two brainless accomplices. Even with Boone beside her—and when she left this room, he was always beside her, even going so far as to stand guard at the bathroom door while she showered—she was afraid of those thugs.

Earlier today Darryl had suggested that they turn the doorknob on this bedroom around so that they could lock her in and she couldn’t lock her BooBoo out. Boone had hated the idea, and she didn’t blame him. If they turned the doorknob around, Darryl would be able to lock them both in if he was of a mind to, and with the window painted shut, they’d be trapped. She had no doubt that Boone could get past the flimsy lock on the door, but reversing the knob would also mean that they couldn’t lock the others out at night. That would never do.

Boone had told Darryl that no locked door could keep him out. After that, it hadn’t been mentioned again.

Low voices drifted to her from the living room, where the four men had gathered to discuss business. She caught enough words to understand they were talking about drugs, money, some kind of meeting.

She couldn’t help but wonder why Boone was here. He wasn’t DEA, he wasn’t official law enforcement of any kind. So what was he doing here undercover, and what was going to happen in less than a week?

Jayne pulled the comforter to her chin and tried to melt into the mattress. The news of her disappearance had probably reached her parents hours ago. Her mother would be frantic. Lucille Barrington was not a particularly stalwart person, and she had always been a little overprotective of her only child. Her doctor would have given her something to help her rest, Jayne supposed, as he had when Grandpa passed away. Lucille Barrington suffered as a Southern woman should—acutely, and in the privacy of her luxurious bedchamber. Jayne loved her mother dearly, but under certain circumstances the woman could be somewhat melodramatic.

The senator, however, was not a man to sit around and worry, and if any physician had dared to try to give him something to help him rest, he’d probably break the poor man’s arm. He had doubtless called in favors, Jayne knew, marshaled the troops, spent the afternoon on the phone shouting and cajoling and doing everything humanly possible to get his daughter home safely.

Grandmother would be praying and cooking. Whenever she got anxious, Myra Jayne Barrington went to the kitchen. During the last senatorial campaign, she’d fed not only her son’s entire hometown staff, but a lot of the reporters, as well. By now she was probably feeding the entire town.

Boone said he needed less than a week. She didn’t think they had even two days.

When Boone returned, locking the door behind him, Jayne breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t help it; she felt better when he was near.

He was quieter than usual as he sat on the bed to remove his boots and socks. His clenched jaw did nothing to make her feel safe.

“Do you have a cell phone?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he replied absently.

Thank goodness. “I just know my parents and my grandmother are worried sick.”

“Scoot over,” Boone said, lying back as if he actually intended to sleep here beside her.

Her first impulse was to give him a gentle shove and refuse to scoot over. But if she was about to ask him for a favor, maybe that wasn’t the way to go.

She scooted. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I’m not sleeping on the floor again,” he said, stretching out beside her. “I’ll stay on top of the covers, you stay beneath.” A grin flashed across his face. “That way I can be sure you’ll keep your hands to yourself.”

Jayne moved to the edge of the bed, giving the big man all the room he might need. “Won’t you get…cold?” She had been surprised by the night’s chill in this part of the country. Back home, May was warm. Some days felt almost like summer. Here the days were pleasant, but when the sun dropped, it was very clear that winter had not fully departed.

Boone turned his head to look her in the eye. “Are you asking me in?”

Jayne’s eyes went wide, and her heart thumped hard. “No! Of course not.”

“I didn’t think so.” He rocked gently and the old bed squeaked.

Not again. “I need to call my mother,” Jayne whispered.

“Sorry,” Boone said as he rocked again.

“But—”

“We can’t take the chance,” he said, before she even had a chance to present her argument. He continued to move in a manner that made the bed rock and squeak. “You might be overheard, the call might be traced, and cell phones are notoriously insecure. Besides, my cell company doesn’t even have service out here. We’d have to swipe Darryl’s phone, and trust me, that’s not a good idea.”

“Boone,” she whispered, pleading.

He rotated his head and looked at her again. “Shouldn’t you be moaning by now?”

“No!” she whispered. “I’m quite sure I should not.”

“A nice loud yee-haw, then,” he suggested with a grin.