Better With You

Dubois

Excerpt

He moved. Fast.

Fast enough to catch Dani off-guard, a feat barely imaginable. She yelped as he snared her throat in his hand, her nails scrambling for his wrist as he lifted her feet from the floor. Fear flooded her eyes as he drove her back to the closest wall. As he slammed her to it.

Ch-Charlie. She gasped, fighting against his grip on her throat. I didn’t…

If she registered he had the tip of his Glock rammed to her temple, she didn’t show it. Her stare locked on his, her toes flailing against his shins.

John Tennant doesn’t exist anymore, Dani, he growled. Hot rage pulsed through him. Rage and guilt and hate and disgust.

John Tennant. A man who had killed more—

Dani slammed her knee into his groin.

Pain erupted in his body. Hot and icy cold at once.

He staggered back, his grip on her throat releasing as his brain tried to compartmentalise the agony radiating from his cock and balls. Compartmentalise it. Contain it. Turn it off.

Dani smashed her fist into his jaw.

He spun with the blow, forcing his body into a faster spin to strike her cheek with his heel.

She reeled sideways, caught herself and flipped into a perfect arc, landing on her feet farther away from him.

Her towel, he couldn’t help but notice, was a pool of cotton on the floor at his feet. Her breasts heaved. Blood trickled from a minute cut below her eye.

He snapped the gun on her face. The fact he was still naked made her attack all the more ironic. For a pathetic moment there, he’d really thought what was between his legs may have been her weakness.

Instead, it was his.

Bad move, Dani, he snarled.

Charlie. She held up her hands, palms out to him, her bare legs in a semi crouch. You need to let me talk.

Talk.

Please, she flicked a look at the towel on the floor, at his groin, can we cover ourselves up first?

Holding her stare, he hooked his big toe beneath the edge of the crumpled towel and kicked the damp rectangle of material to her in a floating arc.

She caught it midair. Wrapped it around her hips again.

Your turn, she said. I swear, I won’t move an inch as you cover up.

Heart pounding, he studied her.

She wriggled the fingers of one hand at him. Give me a cable tie. Just one. I’ll bind myself to the cable crossover.

Gun trained on her forehead, Charlie bent, plucked one of the dropped cable ties from the floor and straightened.

Dani watched him, expression unreadable.

No, that wasn’t right.

In her eyes, in the skin around them, he saw fear. She was genuinely scared. But of him? Why? Why come here if she was scared of him? Why make herself known to him? Unless it wasn’t him she was scared of?

Charlie’s pulse thumped fast in his ears.

What else could scare Dani De Vries? Who else?

Give me the cable tie, Charlie, she repeated, wriggling her fingers again as she positioned herself between the two vertical steel poles of the weight machine. Just promise to cut me free if you decide to kill me. Give me a fighting chance.

He stopped his frown before it could crease his forehead. What the hell was going on here?

Without a word, he crossed to where she stood and tossed her the thin strip of plastic.

Better With You

Outback Skies, Book 5

Lexxie Couper

Published 2017 by Book Boutiques.

ISBN: 978-1-946363-40-4

Copyright © 2017, Lexxie Couper.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Book Boutiques.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, locales, or events is wholly coincidental. The names, characters, dialogue, and events in this book are from the author’s imagination and should not to be construed as real.

Manufactured in the USA.

Email support@bookboutiques.com with questions, or inquiries about Book Boutiques.

Blurb

There’s nothing hotter than a killer love story.

Charlie Baynard is an average Outback cop. Protecting the people in his small town and flying through the Outback skies in his police chopper suits him just fine. But there’s a side to him that no one knows about. Like the fact he used to be one of the Australian government’s best assets, and his name isn’t really Charlie.

A dangerous past conditioned Charlie to be afraid of nothing and no one. Except for the woman who knows exactly who he really is. His wife. And if the reports that she’s headed for Wallaby Ridge are true, he’s got two choices—arrest her or kill her. Before she kills him.

Dani De Vries never questioned orders and was paid to do things that put her on a lot of most-wanted lists. Then Charlie entered her life and things…shifted. Now Dani is on the run, hunted by dangerous people. But not as dangerous as the man she never meant to fall in love with—her husband.

If only she can find him in time. And convince him not to put a bullet between her eyes.

Previously Published

(2015) Samhain Publishing

Dedication

For Fedora and Val. For riding along with me from the very beginning on this crazy adventure.

For Tabatha. For cuffing the problems that needed to be cuffed.

For Sami. For knowing what the hell was going on in my spies’ hearts when the bastards were keeping it from me.

Acknowledgements

Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs, Tibbs Design

Chapter 1

Charlie Baynard put down the phone and reached for his gun.

His gut, never really an organ for reacting to the situations he found himself in, knotted. Of course it would now, given the call he’d just taken.

A call he had never expected to receive, from a life long in his past.

He was retired, damn it.

He now existed as a simple cop in a simple Outback town. That was it.

He was on no one’s radar. He was, as far as people went, a non-event. A cop in a small town way out whoop whoop, with a population of just over five hundred people, one pub and not a single set of traffic lights.

He’d picked this life, this existence, after realizing he’d lost all taste for the job he’d been trained for. He’d been good at the job—very, very good—but after an order that had made his gut roil, and a betrayal that had torn what was left of his soul to shreds, he’d called it quits.

Seventeen years had been long enough.

Seventeen years and enough red on his hands to dye the ocean.

He’d walked away. Handed in his non-existent badge. Told the director to never call him again.

Changed his name. Erased who he’d once been.

Pulled a few strings with a secret contact to land the job as Wallaby Ridge’s senior constable.

Moved.

And that had been it.

He’d kept his finger on the pulse of the industry, as it were, without drawing any attention to himself. Seventeen years of habits were hard to break. But apart from knowing things no Outback cop should, things about politicians, world leaders, movers and shakers, media moguls, oil tycoons, tyrants and dictators, he was a simple bloke who lived by two simple rules—keep his small town peaceful and free of ruckus, and be there for his mates whenever they needed him.

His mates.

Tightening his grip around the Glock’s butt, Charlie thought of his mates.

What would the doc, Evan and Ryan think of the call he’d just taken?

Ryan suspected something about him, but even the heli-musterer would be shocked if he knew the truth.

The truth.

Not for four years.

Fuck a bloody duck, when was the last time Charlie Baynard had dealt in truth?

Not since he’d become Charlie Baynard, that was for certain.

Dropping his stare to the standard-issue weapon in his hand, he drew a slow breath. Lowered his heart rate. The fact his heart rate was elevated told him he’d been out of the game for too long. There was a time when the only way Dani De Vries had caused his heart rate to increase was when she was buck naked, moaning his name as they played the life-or-death game that was their job. Getting a call to say she was heading his way now…

His heart beat faster at the thought, despite the deep breaths he was pulling.

Fuck.

Fuck.

His wife was in Australia.

An image of Dani filled Charlie’s head. The last time he’d been in her company, the last time they’d been face-to-face. She’d been in a black lace bra, matching G-string, stilettoes and nothing else. Her hair had been a mess of pitch-black tousled waves, her lipstick smudged by his lips. An unsettling combination of pleasure and contempt had smoldered in her light blue eyes. The Benchmade Mini Griptilian—her blade of choice for close-quarter combat—dripped beads of blood redder than her lipstick.

His blood.

She’d tried to kill him that day.

Tried. Failed.

Knowing Dani the way he did, he was pretty certain she was still holding a grudge about that.

And now she was in the country and, according to his contact at ASIO, heading his way.

His contact didn’t know why.

Turning the Glock over in his hand, Charlie let out a slow breath.

There were two reasons he could think of for Dani De Vries looking for him.

One—someone had put a hit out on him and she’d gladly taken the job.

Two—she was bored and had decided it was time to pay him a visit. And Dani didn’t do visits in the traditional sense.

Fuck it, he muttered, rising to his feet and sliding his gun into its holster.

If Dani was coming after him, he had two options to stay breathing. One of them involved leaving Wallaby Ridge. The other option would likely result in someone experiencing a lot of pain and exposure. Regardless of that, he liked Wallaby Ridge too much to leave.

It was his home now.

His mates were here. Matt, Ryan and Evan.

He wasn’t going to walk away from them. Especially because Dani was the kind of person who could very well use them to find out where he was if he did.

Better to face his ex and deal with her without anyone knowing what was going on.

It was the only way his secret could stay just that—a secret.

With a grunt, he scooped up his hat, slapped it on his head and exited his office. Those oblivious mates of his were no doubt already at the pub waiting for him.

It was Friday arvo. Their traditional decompress/beer/catch up awaited.

He’d go have a beer, play a round of darts—it was his turn to kick Matt’s arse at the game, after all—grab some dinner and then head home, dig up his Desert Eagle and fixed-blade tactical knife from his backyard and get ready.

As ready as he could be, given what was coming his way. And when it came down to it, he excelled at being ready for that kind of what.

Very well.

At least, it used to be.

It had been a while.

Hitting the pub, Senior Constable?

Charlie swung a look at Timothy Wattle, his deputy and the Ridge’s newest resident. The city boy had only been in the town for a month, not yet long enough to get the smell of concrete and oil out of his pores. He was, in Charlie’s opinion, not cut out for life in the Outback. Charlie gave him another three months, tops, before he scurried back to Sydney.

Yeah, he answered, wrapping his fingers around the doorknob of the station house’s main door. He could already feel the late summer afternoon sun baking the world on the other side of the door. Even by Outback standards, it was a scorcher. Brutal. Make sure the Dutch tourist in Number 2 gets dinner, okay?

Timothy nodded, looking for all the world like a puppy who’d just been asked if he wanted to go for a walk. Will do, Senior Constable. Have a good night.

Will do. And, Timothy?

His deputy almost snapped into a right angle behind the front desk. Senior Constable?

For fuck’s sake, call me Charlie.

Before Timothy could say, Sure, Senior Constable, I mean, Charlie like he did every time Charlie instructed him to be less formal, Charlie twisted the doorknob and pulled the door wide.

A blast of heat from the furnace that was Outback Australia slammed into him.

He paused for a second, waiting for his body to adjust. For the sweat popping out on his forehead to evaporate.

And in that barest of seconds, he scanned his heat-shimmering, red-dirt-dusted surroundings and his heart thumped fast in his throat.

Of course, if Dani were out there, she wouldn’t just walk up to