Page 29 of Rush Turner
By the time Willa’s Jeep disappeared down the lane, I already had a plan forming in my head.
First step: make the place harder to mess with than a SEAL compound.
I started at the barn — replaced the cheap padlocks with heavy-duty ones from my truck kit. Checked every window, every latch, every possible entry point Tornado hadn’t already tested for weaknesses.
Next: the house. Quiet as a ghost, I walked the perimeter, making mental notes. The back door’s hinges were loose. The kitchen window didn’t latch right. Easy fixes. I’d handle it tonight.
Didn’t mean I liked that it needed fixing.
I was halfwaythrough setting up a trail cam on the big oak out front when I heard her voice behind me.
“Rush Turner, what are you doing?”
I flinched, just a little. Should’ve known she’d catch me eventually.
I turned, found Jessa standing there barefoot in the grass again, arms crossed, her mouth set in that stubborn line that did things to my pulse I didn’t have time for right now.
“Just checking a few things.”
She stepped closer, eyes narrowing at the trail cam in my hands. “Checking? Orpreppingfor something you’re not telling me about?”
I didn’t answer right away. My silence was answer enough.
She sucked in a breath, her shoulders stiff. “Don’t you dare keep me in the dark, Rush. Not after everything. You don’t get to decide what I can handle.”
“I’m not deciding anything,” I said, my voice low, steady, dangerous in a way I hadn’t meant it to be with her. “I’mmaking surethat whatever follows me back here doesn’t touch you. Or any of the kids or Aunt Marie. I love this family and I want to keep everyone safe. Oh yeah, or your damn goats.”
She threw her hands up. “Oh, so now you’re God? Just gonna control the world with a padlock and a camera? You can’t stop—”
I cut her off, closing the space between us in two steps. One big hand wrapped around the back of her neck, tilting her chin up to me.
“Watch me.”
She stared at me, breathing hard, fire crackling in those wild eyes of hers. God, she was beautiful like this — furious and fierce and mine whether she admitted it or not.
“You think I’m afraid of trouble?” she hissed.
“No.” I dipped my mouth to hers, just enough to feel her gasp. “I think you’re the best damn thing I ever found in the middle of it.”
She tried to stay mad. She really did. But then my mouth was on hers, and she melted right there in the grass under the big oak.
Somewhere behind us, the goats let out an offended bleat like they’d caught us kissing again.
“Are we doing it behind the big oak tree?”
“No, we’ll do it in the barn.” I picked her up and carried her through the barn doors.
“Shut up, goat,” I growled against her lips.
She laughed into my mouth — and just like that, the storm inside me eased a fraction.
24
Jessa
By the time the kids were scrubbed clean and settled in bed — only after twenty minutes of negotiating over bedtime stories and “just one more cookie” — my nerves were shot.
Rush hadn’t come inside yet. I caught glimpses of him through the window: moving from the barn to the porch, checking shadows like he was back on patrol somewhere halfway around the world. We had wild, crazy sex in the barn, and it was fabulous. My body parts are still aching for more.
