Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) by Cindy Skaggs Read Free Book Online Page A

like Madigan’s wife. Ryder didn’t fear dying, but Lauren’s death was an unacceptable loss.
    Careful to avoid aggravating her injuries, Ryder lifted her from the truck. The oncoming car took the hill slower than the first, so the driver might catch a glimpse of the crash. “My bike is on the other side of the road. We don’t have time to get to it. Come on.” He led her along the shoulder of the road towards the bike. When the headlights drew closer, he pulled her into a drainage ditch that led under the highway, and then shielded her body with his.
    Lauren wiggled, trying to break free. Blood still trickled from the wound on her forehead. “Ryder, they can help.”
    Doubt and guilt plagued him as lights flashed through the opening. After the last few months, he didn’t trust anyone, not even a random stranger, because they weren’t always random. The lights passed before Ryder lifted his head to the outside and watched the vehicle continue around the curve.
    The shove against his shoulder brought his attention back to Lauren. “There went our help.”
    “ I’ll get you to Debi’s. Trust me. I don’t—” The words strangled in his throat. There was only so much he was willing to talk about, even with Lauren.
    “ You don’t what? Spit it out, Ryder. Don’t go all closed off on me again.”
    Had he done that? Closed off from her? Separating himself from Lauren was like slingshotting out of planetary orbit. She was the center of his life, the planet he revolved around, but when Ryder closed his eyes at night, he still saw Mad Dog’s bloody hands. If it hadn’t been for the horror in Madigan’s foyer, he’d never have had the strength to leave.
    “ Ryder.” Her voice snapped in anger. “You don’t what?”
    She deserved an answer, to this at least. “I don’t trust roadside strangers.”
    “ Oh, but...” Her body deflated under his. She reached up and ran a hand over his jaw and tears watered her eyes. “But this is Texas.”
    As if that said it all. “Not everyone’s a Good Samaritan, and because it’s Texas, I...”
    “ Finish. The sentence.” Her teeth ground together as she spoke.
    “ It’s Texas. Everybody’s uncle is carrying a gun, Lauren. Do you not understand the inherent danger?”
    “ Okay.” She adjusted her shoulders, settling deeper into the cool darkness. “Say that’s true—not that I believe everyone’s bad—but, Ryder, if anyone tried, you’re the biggest badass I’ve ever seen. You walked between armed deputies and an armed soldier. You didn’t even break a sweat and it was a hundred degrees outside.”
    The way she saw him made his chest swell, but she didn’t know the truth. “That was an extreme situation and you weren’t there.” If she had been, his first priority would have been her protection.
    “ But you have skills, Ryder, and a gun.” She rubbed a hand over the gun in the holster imprinting through his shirt. “One Texan with a handgun on the side of the road isn’t enough to stop you. They can’t hurt you.”
    But they could hurt her. Ryder swallowed. The night settled around them. It was easier to talk in the dark. He ran a hand over her jaw. The scratches on her face didn’t disguise her beauty. That she’d agreed to coffee the first morning they met was a beyond comprehension. That she married him was a miracle.
    She adjusted again, wiggling her butt against the hard ground.
    “ Are you okay?” He had her pressed into the packed dirt of a drainage ditch. Thankfully dry, but the night was cold, contrasting to her heat underneath him. She’d been under his skin from the moment he’d laid eyes on her across the bar. Rose had given him hell, but the pretty girl in red cowboy boots was worth the razzing he took. She was the answer to every wish he’d ever made.
    What can I get you gentlemen?
    He’d had to nearly saw off his tongue to bite back the answer in his head. All he’d needed was Lauren, before he’d even known her name.