by B. J Daniels
“We’ve got a tail,” Culhane said and hit the gas.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE DARK-COLORED SUV had appeared out of nowhere. Now it sped up, just as Culhane had done. He considered leading the SUV into the foothills and trapping the driver in a spot where they could have a conversation but discarded the idea immediately. He couldn’t take the chance that a confrontation could turn violent since he had no idea who was tailing them.
Right now it could be anyone from dirty deputies or Jack’s friends to guards from the ranch or even friends of Jana’s. Everyone was looking for them—just as they were looking for Jana and the truth. Culhane wondered how many were set on keeping them from finding both.
“Hang on.”
He knew this road. Not far down it, the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers came together to make the mighty Missouri. Dust rose behind them even as clouds gathered on the horizon with the promise of a snowstorm. Winter was coming late this year.
He came around a corner and hit his brakes hard. The pickup fishtailed as he took a narrow dirt road that left the river and climbed up into the foothills. Fifty yards later, he took another one, this one doubling back toward the valley and Bozeman.
A few more back roads and even one section that was more of a trail than a road, and they dropped down through the Horseshoe Hills. Lights winked on across the Gallatin Valley as a cloak of darkness fell around them.
When he looked back again, there was no one following them. Alexis hadn’t said a word the whole time. He glanced over at her now and felt that tug at his heartstrings like he had from the first time he saw her. There was something so calm, so confident, so solid in her.
He figured it was the way she was raised. Her parents had encouraged her to be anything she wanted to be, even though they’d worried about her being a sheriff’s deputy and now a bounty hunter. However, they’d never stood in her way. That’s probably why he’d fallen in love with her parents the first time he’d met them—and was in awe of what a normal family looked like.
He’d taken a long time before he’d even asked Alexis out. Even after that he’d been hesitant, fearing the woman had no idea what she was getting herself into. He carried the scars of his childhood. She knew that, but he doubted she knew how deep they ran.
Culhane drove a few minutes, feeling the weight of the silence between them. “You haven’t asked me if I did it.”
Alexis frowned over at him. “Did what?”
He mugged a face at her. “Killed Jana.”
Her eyes widened. “You didn’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Are we really having this conversation?” She looked away. “Because I know you.”
“Do you?”
She let out a sigh and turned back to him. “You’re a good man, Culhane.”
He chuckled at that, but it held no humor. “I hope you always feel that way.” He saw that his words unsettled her. “I have a lot more baggage than I let on.”
“Clearly,” she agreed. “Is there something else I should know?”
He studied her, not sure what he wanted to say or if he even did want to talk about it. His cell phone rang, saving him. They were on the outskirts of Bozeman. He saw it was his father’s attorney and declined the call.
As he rubbed the back of his neck, he realized how tired he was. Talk about a long day. “Let’s just find a place for the night.” When she didn’t comment, he looked over at her. She seemed to be lost in thought. “Are you all right?”
She shook herself out of her thoughts and smiled. “I’m fine. But you’re right, it’s getting late. I’m tired and hungry. Maybe we could use a drive-through?”
“Sounds good,” he said and looked for a motel off the beaten path.
* * *
THEY’D NEVER BEEN to a motel together before. Most of the time they’d known each other, they’d been working a variety of shifts. When they were able to get the same shifts in summer, they went camping and slept in a tent.
It seemed strange and almost unseemly for them to be getting a motel room together. Culhane had been married only on paper, but according to the law...
“I can get the rooms,” Alexis said as he pulled up to the office.
“Rooms?”
She shot him a look. “Aren’t you still married?”
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever been married. Jana and I...” He shook his head. “She was pretending to have morning sickness the few weeks we were together. Basically, the marriage—if you want to call it that—was never consummated.”
“Are you telling me that you only slept with her the one time?”
He looked embarrassed. “See why I don’t tell anyone about it? You must think me a fool.”
She shook her head. “I think you’re a nice guy who was trying to do the right thing.”
“Yeah, and look where it got me. It would appear that Jana is in on setting me up for murder. Not to mention this latest with whatever she was doing at that ranch.”
“We’ll get it sorted out,” Alexis assured him. “I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later she walked by the front of the pickup holding up a single key. Getting two rooms felt silly given that she was already pregnant. Also, she wanted to keep Culhane close for a number of reasons. She didn’t want to be alone tonight, either. She heard him open the pickup door and come after her.
“I need a hot shower,” she said as she opened the door to the room and stepped inside. She saw that he’d brought the overnight bag she’d grabbed from her vehicle before they left Buckhorn. She met his gaze as she took it. “Are you going to be here when I come back out?”
“I promise I’ll be here. You’re right, I need you.” He smiled, those blue eyes warming like a tropical sea washing over her. “There is no doubt about that.”
His words sent a frisson of pleasure to her center. Last night on the run, look where he’d gone. Straight to her. How could she think that she didn’t know this man? Because sometimes even lovers kept secrets from each other. She thought of her own secret and had to look away. Culhane was no fool. If they ended up making love in that queen-size bed, he’d know. He knew every inch of her body. He would notice that her breasts were bigger. He would see the changes in her hips, in the soft roundness of her belly. He would see it in her eyes. She couldn’t hide the truth much longer—if he hadn’t already noticed last night even in the darkness.
In the intimacy of the motel room, she thought about telling him. But she reminded herself that it would change everything. He’d be distracted and even more worried about her. If he knew about the baby, he’d want to protect her even more than he did now.
“If you need company in the shower...” His grin widened.
She shook her head and, entering the bathroom, closed the door behind her. For a moment she stood, trying to catch her breath. Being here with him made her heart race. So much had happened. So much more could. It left her even more off balance than she’d been lately.
“You all right in there?” Culhane called.
“Fine,” she called back and turned on the shower before beginning to strip down. Having shed her clothing, she stood in front of the full-length mirror. Her body was changing, there was no denying that. Her breasts were tender and larger. She placed her hand on her usually flat stomach and felt the slight bump. It wouldn’t be long and she would be showing.
She thought about what Jana had done to Culhane. She never wanted to put him or herself in that position. Last night when he’d used his key to let himself into her apartment and climbed into her bed, he apparently hadn’t noticed the changes to her body. Or at least he hadn’t said anything. But how long could she keep this from him? How long did she want to?
Stepping into the shower, she let the water run over her. Alexis knew exactly when she’d gotten preg
nant. The one time they hadn’t used contraception. They’d gotten carried away, and at the time it had seemed so natural that neither of them had stopped to consider the chance they were taking.
She heard the bathroom door open and close, and a moment later, the shower curtain was drawn aside.
“Say the word, and I’ll go back to the ballgame on TV in the other room.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, saying nothing, yearning for his arms around her. He stripped and stepped in. Pressing his naked body into the back of hers, he held her as if needing this as much as she did.
They stood like that under the spray for a long time, the warm water showering over them as they were locked together against the coming storm.
“I love you,” he whispered next to her ear. He gently pushed aside a lock of her wet hair from her ear and repeated, “I love you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, surprised by the burn of tears beneath her lids. She had longed to hear those words. “I love you, too.” The words came out in a hoarse whisper while her brain cried, Why now? Why say them now? Because he thought one or both of them was going to die?
He turned her to face him and kissed her. It felt like kissing in the rain. She pressed her body against his, feeling his desire, feeling her own, as the warm water cascaded over them.
The water suddenly turned cold. Culhane quickly turned it off and hurried to get them towels. The bathroom at the motel was so small that there really wasn’t room for both of them, so he stepped out into the bedroom to finish drying off.
She was glad of that as she let the door close. Her nausea was more intermittent through the day than just in the morning. She quickly locked the door and turned on the faucet at the sink as if brushing her teeth before heaving into the toilet and hoping he wouldn’t hear. After she’d emptied her stomach, she brushed her teeth before wrapping a towel around her, unlocking the door and stepping out.
Culhane was waiting for her, looking worried. He’d wrapped his towel around his waist, his broad muscled chest still glistening with water. “Alex.” She stepped past him to reach for her bag with a change of clothes in it.
He came up behind her, put his big hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her to face him. She couldn’t look this beautiful caring man in the eye, knowing what she was keeping from him. He lifted her chin with a finger until their gazes met. “Anything you want to tell me?” His gaze pierced her straight to her heart.
She brushed her wet hair back, straightening her shoulders. He had every right to know. She ached to tell him. But that was before she’d found out about Jana and how she’d trapped him into marriage.
Culhane would do the right thing. He’d proven that. But she wanted more for herself and her child. “Just an upset stomach, that’s all. I think it was that fast food we got on the way here.” She held his gaze, hating herself for lying to him.
* * *
CULHANE’S PHONE RANG. He glanced at Alexis, then at his phone. He didn’t want to leave things where they were. It rang again.
“It’s probably April,” she said and turned away to dig in her overnight bag.
He sighed, not wanting to end the conversation with her, but anxious in case it was April calling back. It was. He quickly picked up. “Hello.”
“I have the information on Jana Redfield Travis. She was here just short of seven years ago. She stayed in the maternity wing. Until the baby was born and adopted.”
“Baby? No, she wasn’t—” He caught his breath. “She was pregnant? You’re sure?”
“She had a son.”
The words ricocheted off him like rubber bullets, leaving only the pain. “She had a son?” His thoughts swirled around in his head. He could have a six-year-old son. A son he never knew about.
Jana had lied to him on so many levels, and yet he’d never hated her. Until now. If she really had his son and gave him up for adoption... A son he hadn’t gotten to see grow up? A son who didn’t know he was alive? He swallowed the lump in this throat.
He told himself there had to be a mistake. Not even Jana was that cruel. Nor did it make any sense. Why lie about losing the baby? Why take off to go to the ranch rather than stay with him? She had to have known he would have welcomed the baby. A son. Jana could have used the baby as leverage to get anything she wanted. His father would have probably even come around—after a simple paternity test proved the boy was Culhane’s.
So why had she left? Why had she lied? He tried to imagine Jana as a mother. It was a frightening thought, since she’d been raised by Jack who hadn’t shown any sign of being a role model.
“The baby was born full-term and healthy on March 9. The adoption records are sealed and not kept here on the ranch so I can’t help you with that.”
“Thank you,” he said as he did the math in his head. “Please be careful.” He hung up and felt his heart drop. The baby couldn’t have been his. That’s why Jana hadn’t stayed. She’d known he would count the months and know the truth.
For just a few minutes, he’d had a son.
“Culhane? Are you all right?” Alexis asked and got to her feet to come to him.
“Jana was at the ranch to have a baby and give it up for adoption.” He shook his head and quickly added, “It wasn’t mine.”
He slowly pocketed the phone, still in shock. He’d done the math again in his head. There was no mistake. “Jana had the baby on March 9.” A wave of conflicting emotions rolled through him. “He couldn’t have been mine.” He found himself battling both disappointment and relief. Relief because he hadn’t missed more than six years of his child’s life. Disappointment because no child of his had existed.
Alexis quickly stepped to him, putting her arms around him. She pulled him close, and he closed his eyes, feeling an ache in his chest. For a few moments, he’d had a son. He hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted it to be true.
“Let’s go to bed,” she said. Crawling into bed in the nightshirt she’d brought with her, she picked up the remote and began to flip through the stations. The game he’d been watching was over, not that he would have been able to concentrate on the score now, anyway.
“My favorite Christmas movie is starting,” she said, looking over at him as he pulled on a pair of briefs and climbed in beside her, sex no longer at the forefront of his thoughts.
“It’s a Wonderful Life?” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.”
“Seriously?” She was looking at him as if he’d grown three heads. “How is that possible? Didn’t you ever watch Christmas movies over the holidays? I would think your mother—”
* * *
THE MINUTE THE words were out of her mouth, she realized her mistake. “I’m sorry. I just thought—”
“That I would have seen it with my mother?” He shook his head. “We spent more time in the kitchen around Christmas. My mother loved to bake and decorate holiday cakes and cookies. We often had a lot of friends over during the holidays. It was always busy at the ranch.”
She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for him to lose his mother and then the ranch and his father, too. The movie began. Culhane put an arm around her, and they snuggled together. She had seen the movie dozens of times but never tired of it.
Except her mind kept wandering back to waking to the bad news, Buckhorn, the café, the brush with death and the news about Jana and the baby. Mostly she kept coming back to Culhane’s reaction to Jana’s baby not being his. He’d looked more than disappointed; he’d looked heartbroken. She told herself that she’d misunderstood since he’d been clear about not wanting children.
She was completely distracted by her thoughts and not paying attention to the movie at all. What if they didn’t find Jana? What if the law caught up to them? Christmas was nearing. Her mother had left a message asking about their plans. It would be her first Christmas with Culhane. They’d planned to
spend at least part of it with her parents. She needed to call them. By now they would have heard the news about Alexis being wanted by the law. She doubted she would be able to sleep a wink.
* * *
CULHANE WATCHED THE movie credits roll. Alexis was right. It was a great movie. He felt a little choked up, not that he would admit it. He glanced over to find her sound asleep. When had she drifted off?
He smiled to himself. He’d been so content with her head resting against his shoulder, his arm around her, he hadn’t noticed that she hadn’t been watching the movie with him.
Carefully, he turned off the television and the lamp beside the bed, not wanting to disturb her. He loved watching her sleep. She looked so peaceful. So beautiful. Like someone without a care in the world.
Maybe before she’d gotten involved with him that was true. But not anymore. He’d pulled her into his orbit and his mess. She sighed in her sleep and turned to spoon against him. He thought about how her body had changed. He hadn’t seen that with Jana because she hadn’t let him get close to her.
But with Alexis, he knew that body better than his own. He’d warned her when they’d first started dating that he didn’t do marriage or babies. It had been a stupid thing to tell her, but the memory of being burned by Jana had left scars. That and his upbringing after twelve.
What a fool he was, he thought now. He thought about earlier when there’d been a chance that he had a son. It had made him realize the truth. He did want children with Alexis. With her, he could let himself believe in the fairy tale of happily-ever-after. Just the thought of her as his wife and of a house and the patter of little feet made him ache for just that. After what had happened when his mother died, the way his father had dealt with it and then Jana and their so-called marriage, he really had thought it wasn’t for him.
But then along came Alexis. He brushed a lock of her hair back from her forehead. She smiled in her sleep, her lips turning up at the corners. She snuggled into him and fell back into a deep sleep. She’d changed his life. He thought about the engagement ring he’d purchased over a month ago. He’d planned to pop the question at Christmas.