“Let’s wait,” I said.
“They’re on our property.” Rafe was indignant, not because the men were on our property — now they were just a problem to be addressed — but because I was stopping him from handling it his way.
“I know,” I said, still watching the men through my rifle scope, “but just chill.”
He scowled and a few seconds later the snowmobiles were put into gear. I kept the rifle steady on the one in front as they moved forward, but they used the distance to turn the snowmobiles around and head back into the woods.
I lowered my rifle as the whine of the engines grew more distant.
“What the fuck was that about?” Rafe asked.
“No idea.”
We stood there for a couple minutes, probably because the cold was preferable to going back to the house with Lilah Abbott inside.
“Of all the places…” Rafe started, practically reading my mind.
It wasn’t unusual. Our long friendship had built our connection, but our time in the same SEALs unit had madeit ironclad. Sometimes it seemed like we could communicate without words, without hand gestures or even facial expressions.
“I know,” I said. “What do we do now?”
I hated to ask, and I really hated to ask Rafe, because asking Rafe what to do with a sticky situation was like asking a bomb: it didn’t matter what was going on, it only knew how to do one thing.
“Get her the fuck out of here,” he growled, stalking toward the front door. “Fast.”
4
LILAH
I’d startedto shiver by the time Nolan returned with a small black nylon duffel bag, a pair of black sweatpants, and a down comforter.
“You need to get out of those wet clothes,” he said, holding out the sweatpants.
I glared at him. Putting a sweatshirt on over my wet T-shirt was one thing: no way in hell I was taking off my clothes in this house. Not even for a minute.
He exhaled noisily, then nodded and set the sweatpants aside before draping the comforter around my shoulders.
He knelt at my feet and held a thermometer against my forehead, then frowned when he read the display. I thought I read concern in his eyes, but that was crazy, because if there were three men on the planet who didn’t give a shit about me, it was the three men I’d come to think of as the Bastards.
“Can I take off your shoes and socks at least? Put these on?” He held up two pairs of thick men’s socks.
I hesitated, then nodded.
I looked around the room. It was a big space, a great room I think they called it. The living room had huge vaulted ceilingsand a wall of windows that probably offered killer views during the day, and flames danced in the hearth of a fireplace so big I could have walked into it.
The room was open to a dining area with a long table crafted out of a hefty slab of rough-hewn wood that looked like it could have survived a nuclear strike. A kind of loft was visible on the second floor, a black iron railing providing a bird’s-eye view of the massive living area.
I couldn’t really feel my feet but I knew Nolan had worked off my shoes and socks when he looked up at me with real fear in his eyes. “What’s going on here, Lilah?”
I didn’t have to look at my feet to know why. They were swollen, something I could sense more than feel.
“AVS,” I said through chattering teeth. “I don’t have my meds.”
He cursed, then dug in his bag. He held up three different amber-colored plastic bottles so I could read the labels. I pointed to the one in the middle and he removed the cap and shook a pill into his hand before handing it to me.
“Need water?”
I shook my head. I just needed to get the medicine into my body. Then I might be able to start thinking straight.