Ricochet (Renegades #3)(20)
Author: Skye Jordan

Zeppelin’s tunes still ripped from the stereo. Ryker’s mind darted in ten different directions—to the almost-incurred cost of repairing his buddy’s almost-crushed vehicle, to the almost-incurred cost of the equipment he’d almost destroyed, to the almost-injured men he’d almost hit…

“Fuuuuuck…” He leaned forward, hitting the power button to the stereo. The sudden silence seemed all encompassing. Seemed to drain all the energy from his body. He exhaled heavily as he rested his forehead against the steering wheel and closed his eyes.

Footsteps crunched outside the car, bringing Ryker’s hearing into full focus, and the sound of voices and machinery flooded in.

“I’d ask if you’re okay, but you’re the fucking man of steel, so I know you’re fine.” The voice was cool, deep, laced with humor. “But you probably just made four grown men shit their pants. Quite an entrance. You always did have to be the center of attention.”

Ryker smiled, sat back, and opened his eyes to the dash. In his peripheral vision, the man he’d come to see and his childhood friend, Troy Jacobs, approached the driver’s window.

“You said the site was thirteen miles from the gate. This is only eight miles, dumb shit.” Ryker rolled his head on the seat and pinned Troy with a you-idiot glare. “You always did suck at math.”

Troy’s long hair was a curling, wild mess hanging to his shoulders. He hadn’t shaved in at least three days, and his T-shirt and jeans were covered with a film of dirt beneath some crazy-ass harness. Sweat dripped down his face, dampened his hair, and darkened his black tee. Everything about his friend oozed vibrancy and energy and excitement, making Ryker realize it had been quite a while since he’d felt the same in his own life. Jealousy and longing stirred. A restlessness to get back to his unit. His own work.

The weeks remaining of his leave suddenly felt infinite.

“You fucker.” Ryker rested his elbow on the window ledge. “The amount of fun you have in your job ought to be illegal.”

“You’re not one to talk.” Troy planted his palms on the harness at his hips. “Get your ass into that trailer.” He tilted his head toward one of many trailers littering the canyon. The long side had been covered in a stylized Renegades Stunt Company logo, and Ryker’s mind instantly shot back to Rachel. “Sign a release form and come have some fun with us.”

Troy pointed across the roof of the truck. Ryker squinted against the sun to where several people in harnesses like Troy’s scaled the rock face—some with filming cameras hiked on their shoulders. A bevy of others milled at the bottom. “Is that what you want to blow up? The boulder?”

“No, this is a different scene.”

“Troy!” The call drifted to them from a ledge on the face of a massive granite outcropping. “Get up here.”

Troy pull the driver’s door open. “Come on.” He waited for Ryker to stand from the vehicle and walked with him toward the trailer. “The one we need your help on is way bigger. It’s a bridge, located three hours north, and we need a big finale shot. We’ll talk explosives as soon as we shoot this scene. For now, I’ll introduce you to Rachel, get your Hancock on a few—”

Surprise cut along Ryker’s nerves. His feet stopped dead at the base of the trailer’s steps, where Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” poured from the open door at the top. “Rachel?”

Troy turned and looked back at him. “Yeah. Our secretary…manager… She sort of does everything but the stunts, really. You talked to her on the phone a week ago.”

Ryker’s mouth dried up. His belly coiled with…with…shit, he didn’t even know. “What is a secretary doing here? On site?”

Troy turned and gave him a what-kind-of-question-is-that look, and Ryker immediately realized his screw up.

He turned and waved for Troy to follow. “Fuck the paperwork. Let’s have fun.”

Troy smirked with a ahake of his head. “Sorry, buddy. Those days of free adrenaline are over. All risks are now carefully calculated, insured, and contracted. But the worst would be Rachel getting ahold of me if I let you up there without signing a waiver first. She’d chew my ass to nothing.”

“Listen, dude, I don’t really have time to climb today anyway. Can’t we just talk about the blast?”

Troy put his hands on his hips and frowned. “What the fuck else you gonna do?”

Right. He ran a hand over his head as the dread in his chest turned to stone and dropped to the pit of his stomach. “Yeah, okay.”

Ryker turned back to the stairs, where Troy stopped him with a hand against Ryker’s shoulder. “And let me tell you now,” he said, gaze direct and serious, “she’s off limits. Don’t even think about messing with her.”

His gut took a hit, and acid leaked in. “Why’s that?”

“Because she’s not fuck-and-dump material. She’s as much family to me as you are. Got it?” Without waiting for a reply, Troy jogged up the trailer steps.

Ryker took a deep breath and searched for a strategy to handle the situation. And as the leader of a strategic team who handled life-and-death conditions on the fly every day under the worst possible conditions…

He came up completely blank.

“Come on,” Troy said from the landing.

Ryker climbed the stairs with his mind darting in five different directions, but he couldn’t think of anything to say or do at this point. Best to face it head-on. But, still, he hung back and let Troy enter first.

The inside of the trailer was dim with all the lights off. Only sunlight slanted in through three windows and the open door. As many fans moved warm air around the space.

The minute Ryker spotted Rachel standing near a filing cabinet, her back toward him, his whole body reacted—fire in some places, tightness in others. He shifted on his feet and stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying to stretch some of the sudden tension from his muscles, and feeling ridiculous for all the nerves.

Rachel’s hair was piled into a knot on top of her head that looked as if it would tumble down any second, especially the way she was rocking that sweet little body of hers to the music. The slip of white fabric she probably called a dress was as tempting as her body, with a short skirt and halter top. One that made her skin glow tan and showed every great curve of her toned legs all the way down to where her calves disappeared into…