Page 33 of Ranger Belief
“Jonah! You okay?”
“I’m fine!” he called back. “Stay down!”
But instead of staying put, he heard her tennis shoes hit the porch. He popped his head around the corner of the house in time to see her vault over the railing and take off across the grass in pursuit of the shooter. With an uncharacteristic curse, Jonah bolted after her. “Stop! Laney!”
She paid him no heed. Wet branches smacked him in the face as he tried to catch up to her. His cowboy boots slid on the soft ground, made slippery by last night’s thunderstorm. He didn’t know these woods. Not like Laney, and clearly not like the killer either. Both of them had disappeared into the trees. Panic pulsed through him, fast and hot, mingling with a fear that threatened to send him straight over the edge.
Jonah pressed forward. The snap of breaking branches ahead told him which direction she'd gone. He followed the sound of her pursuit—shoes on wet leaves, the rustle of disturbed undergrowth. When the sounds faded, his heart hammered harder.
He slid to a stop under an oak. Rain beat down on his head and shoulders. He turned in a circle, desperately searching for a clue that would put him back on Laney’s path, praying that the next noise he heard wouldn’t be gunshots.
Please, God. Please. Help me.
The rumble of an engine broke through the silence. Without hesitation, Jonah bolted in the direction it came from. Gunshots sent his pulse into overdrive. He burst out of the trees and onto the shore of the lake. Laney stood a short distance away behind a tree, gun raised. A small motorboat raced across the water. Whoever was driving was crouched down, nothing more than a black blob against a gray sky.
Laney spun in Jonah’s direction. When she saw him, she lowered her weapon. “He got away.”
He got away. He got away.
The words whipped through his head on repeat like a hurricane, even as his gaze swept over her slender form. Rain had soaked her hair, leaving the black strands clumped and causing rivulets to chase down her face into the collar of her pajama top. Her ratty tennis shoes were coated with damp grass. But there was no blood. She was whole. Unharmed. Alive.
And a rage unlike anything Jonah had ever experienced before coursed through him. It was nearly blinding. The worry and panic and desperation all tangled together like three bolts of lightning hitting the same metal rod.
“How could you be so reckless?” He shouted the words. Yelling wasn’t something he did. Ever. But at this moment, Jonah couldn’t control his emotions. He stalked toward her. “Don’t ever do that again. Do you hear me?” His hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her closer. “You could’ve been killed!”
Shock widened her eyes. “Jonah?—”
“No!” He couldn’t hear her explanation. Didn’t want it. He was practically vibrating with the force of his feelings. A tidal wave of emotion that couldn’t be held back. “You can’t take risks like that. Don’t you understand that there are people who depend on you? People who love you.”
In that moment, he got it. What Papa Earl had been trying to say.
Time waits for no man.
And Jonah…he’d wasted so much time. That’s what this was all about. The bruises on Laney’s neck were still visible, proof of how close she’d come to losing her life. And still, he hadn’t understood. But now, standing in the shelter of a pine tree, therain beating down on both of them…he got it. One bullet could have ended any chance he’d had.
Laney’s hand landed on his chest, right over his pounding heart. Something flickered in her eyes as she looked up at him. Not fear or confusion, but recognition. As if she were seeing him clearly for the first time, understanding what he was really saying.
And then her gaze dropped to his mouth.
He didn’t think. Didn’t pause. His feelings were too raw, too exposed, to stay hidden.
And so, driven by years of pent-up emotion, Jonah bent his head and kissed her.
SIXTEEN
His mouth was warm.
Surprise froze Laney in place the moment Jonah kissed her, but in the next heartbeat, it was consumed by a fierce hunger she'd never experienced before. Need coiled in her belly. Her fingers curled into his shirt, pulling him closer, and she kissed him back with a desperation that matched his own. The world narrowed to the taste of rain on his lips and the solid warmth of his body pressed against hers. The intensity of it tilted her world on its axis. It also set off alarm bells.
With a sharp inhale, she broke the kiss. Chest heaving, fear slicing through her, Laney shoved away from Jonah, forcing him to break his hold. Oh, God, what had she done? What hadtheydone? Numbness spread through her limbs as a rising sense of panic narrowed her vision.
“Laney.” Jonah’s voice was husky and more than a bit shaky.
She couldn’t. Couldn’t look him in the eye. Couldn’t talk about this.
“We…” Her brain scrambled to find a safe topic to cling to. “We should call this in. The sheriff’s department might be able to get someone out on the water quickly enough to spot the boat.The shooter was wearing all black. He’s fit. A quick runner. I didn’t get a good look at him, but I fired off two rounds. Between your shots and mine, he might’ve been hit. Deputies should alert the local hospitals.”
Her body shook. An aftereffect of the adrenaline or from the intensity of the kiss, Laney couldn’t tell. She brushed a lock of tangled hair from her eyes. Water dripped onto her lashes. The rain fell softly, and suddenly she felt the chill from her soaked clothing.
