“That sounds good. Once it’s back, I’ll keep the rig off the schedule till we get the call from El Jefe.” She ran the idea around in her head. “I think it could work.”
“It’s going to work. We might have to make a few deliveries before we get the evidence we need, but eventually we’re going to have enough to take to the FBI.”
Her worry returned. El Jefe expected her to drive the truck that would make those deliveries. Linc would never agree. Inwardly she sighed. She would argue with him when the time came.
“We might get some kind of evidence of the smuggling,” she said, “but how do we catch El Jefe? He won’t be there and we have no idea who he is.”
“We will. Those payoffs he makes to his informers can work both ways. For enough money, sooner or later someone who knows who he is will come forward.”
“Are you saying what I think you are? You want to put a bounty on his head? If El Jefe found out—”
“It’s a risk, I’ll admit. But I’ve got friends willing to help. They don’t like this guy anymore than we do.”
“Who?” Carly asked.
Linc’s mouth curved into a hard-edged smile. “The Asphalt Demons. We’re going to the roadhouse tonight. You never know who you might run into.”
* * *
Just before dark, Linc called the head of the ranch’s security team, Deke Logan. He was in his mid-forties, former special ops, part-time bodyguard, and all-around good guy. He told Logan he’d be leaving with Carly, taking his Harley on the back road out of the property. He didn’t want any of Logan’s armed, hand-picked guards mistaking him for a trespasser, shooting them as they roared off into the night.
For the meeting ahead, he dressed in his black leather vest and chaps, pulled on a pair of motorcycle boots, and headed down the hall to where Carly waited for him in the living room. Her head came up when she saw him, her big blue eyes running over him, head to foot.
He was no stranger to the heat in a woman’s eyes when she wanted a man. When this woman looked at him that way, it was all he could do not to drag her back to bed and forget all about Jubal’s.
“Wow,” was all she said, but her hot look never wavered.
Lust slammed into him, and beneath the fly of his jeans, he went rock hard. “Any chance you can hold that thought until we get home?”
Her cheeks flushed prettily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He laughed, clearly reading her correctly. He loved her sensuality, appreciated that she had a need that stood up to his own. “You ready for this?”
The grin that spread over her face made him smile. “I am sooo ready.”
Linc tossed her the spare helmet he kept in the weight room. Carly caught it and tucked it under her arm.
“I’m excited,” she said. “I haven’t been on a motorcycle since college and it was a rice burner, not a Harley.”
He grinned.Rice burner,slang for a Japanese model, probably thought up by a Harley man.
“The road’s pretty bad going out the back way so we’ll have to take it slow till we get to the highway. I’m not as stupid as I was as a kid so if you’re looking for a wild ride, it isn’t going to happen.”
“I’m not that stupid anymore, either. I’d prefer to get there and back in one piece.” She looked cute with her golden hair plaited into a single long braid, her stretchy jeans tucked into the same red leather cowboy boots she’d had on at the roadhouse the first night he’d seen her there.
Arousal burned through him, the same as it had when he’d seen her in those boots that night. Linc managed to tamp it down and glanced at the watch in the leather band on his wrist.
“Time to go.” He’d retrieved his Harley earlier, parked it in front of the house, a customized black and silver CVO Street Glide that was everything he loved in a bike.
He swung a leg over the seat and waited for Carly to swing on behind him. He could feel her soft breasts pressing into his back as her arms went around his waist, feel her thighs cradling his, and his hard-on returned, which didn’t make for comfortable riding.
He sighed. As much as he was looking forward to getting out on the road, it was going to be a damn long night.
“You ready?” he asked, pulling on his black and silver helmet.
“You bet.” Carly pulled on her helmet and fastened the chin strap. He made a mental note to buy her one that fit her better. While he was at it, he might as well get her a set of riding leathers, an image that made him hot all over again. Inwardly he groaned.
Linc shoved the kickstand up with his boot and fired the engine, revved the motor, and rolled off down the dirt road.
