by Linda Howard
He was shoving her out of harm’s way. She stiffened against the pressure of his hand, digging in her heels. He stopped and turned to face her, then placed his hand over her belly. “You have to go,” he said, without a flicker of emotion. He was in combat mode, his face impassive, his eyes cold and distant.
He was right. Because of the baby, she had to go. She put her hand over his. “All right. But do you have an extra pistol I could have—just in case?”
He hesitated briefly, then strode into the bedroom to his garment bag. The weapon he removed was a compact, five-shot revolver. “Do you know how to use it?”
She folded her hand around the butt, feeling the smoothness of the wood. “I’ve shot skeet, but I’ve never used a handgun. I’ll manage.”
“There’s no empty chamber, and no safety,” he said as he escorted her out the door. “You can pull the hammer back before you fire, or you can use a little more effort and just pull the trigger. Nothing to it but aiming and firing. It’s a thirty-eight caliber, so it has stopping power.” He was walking swiftly toward the stairs as he talked. He opened the stairwell door and began pushing her up the stairs, their steps echoing in the concrete silo. “I’m going to put you in an empty room on the twenty-third floor, and I want you to stay there until either Chance or I come for you. If anyone else opens the door, shoot them.”
“I don’t know what Chance looks like,” she blurted.
“Black hair, hazel eyes. Tall. So good-looking you start drooling when you see him. That’s what he says women do, anyway.”
They reached the twenty-third floor. Barrie was only slightly winded, Zane not at all. As they stepped into the carpeted silence of the hallway, she asked, “How do you know which rooms are empty?”
He produced one of the electronic cards from his pocket. “Because one of Chance’s people booked the room last night and slipped me the key card while we were eating supper. Just in case.”
He always had an alternate plan—just in case. She should have guessed.
He opened the door to room 2334 and ushered her inside, but he didn’t enter himself. “Lock and chain the door, and stay put,” he said, then turned and walked swiftly toward the stairwell. Barrie stood in the doorway and watched him. He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. “I’m waiting to hear the door being locked,” he said softly.
She stepped back, turned the lock and slid the chain into place.
Then she stood in the middle of the neat, silent room and quietly went to pieces.
She couldn’t stand it. Zane was deliberately walking into danger—on her account—and she couldn’t join him. She couldn’t be there with him, couldn’t guard his back. Because of the baby growing inside her, she was relegated to this safe niche while the man she loved faced bullets for her.
She sat on the floor and rocked back and forth, her arms folded over her stomach, keening softly as tears rolled down her face. This terror for Zane’s safety was worse than anything she’d ever felt before, far worse than what she’d known at the hands of her kidnappers, worse even than when he’d been shot. At least she’d been there then. She’d been able to help, able to touch him.
She couldn’t do anything now.
A sharp, deep report that sounded like thunder made her jump. Except it wasn’t thunder; the desert sky was bright and cloudless. She buried her face against her knees, weeping harder. More shots. Some lighter, flatter in tone. A peculiar cough. Another deep thundering, then several in quick succession.
Then silence.
She pulled herself together and scrambled to the far corner of the room, behind the bed. She sat with her back against the wall and her arms braced on her knees, the pistol steady as she held it trained on the door. She didn’t see how anyone other than Zane or Chance could know where she was, but she wouldn’t gamble on it. She didn’t know what any of this was about, or who her enemies were, except for Mack Prewett, probably.
Time crawled past. She didn’t have her wristwatch on, and the clock radio on the bedside table was turned away from her. She didn’t get up to check the time. She simply sat there with the pistol in her hand and waited, and died a little more with each passing minute of Zane’s absence.
He didn’t come. She felt the coldness of despair grow in her heart, spreading until it filled her chest, the pressure of it almost stopping her lungs. Her heartbeat slowed to a heavy, painful rhythm. Zane. He would have come, if he’d been able. He’d been shot again. Wounded. She wouldn’t let herself even think the word dead, but it was there, in her heart, her chest, and she didn’t know how she could go on.
There was a brief knock on the door. “Barrie?” came a soft call, a voice that sounded tired and familiar. “It’s Art Sandefer. It’s over. Mack’s in custody, and you can come out now.”
Only Zane and Chance were supposed to know where she was. Zane had said that if anyone else opened the door, to shoot them. But she’d known Art Sandefer for years, known and respected both the man and the job he did. If Mack Prewett had been dirty, Art would have been on top of it. His presence here made sense.
“Barrie?” The door handle rattled.
She started to get up and let him in, then sank back to the floor. No. He wasn’t Zane and he wasn’t Chance. If she had lost Zane, the least she could do was follow his last instructions to the letter. His objective had been her safety, and she trusted him more than she had ever trusted anyone else in her life, including her father. She definitely trusted him more than she did Art Sandefer.
She was unprepared for the peculiar little coughing sound. Then the lock on the door exploded, and Art Sandefer pushed the door open and stepped inside. In his hand was a pistol with a thick silencer fitted onto the end of the barrel. Their eyes met across the room, his weary and cynical and acutely intelligent. And she knew.
Barrie pulled the trigger.
Zane was there only moments, seconds, later. Art had slumped to a sitting position against the open door, his hand pressed to the hole in his chest as his eyes glazed with shock. Zane kicked the weapon from Art’s outstretched hand, but that was all the attention he paid to the wounded man. He stepped over him as if he wasn’t there, rapidly crossing the room to where Barrie sat huddled in the corner, her face drawn and gray. Her gaze was oddly distant and unfocused. Panic roared through him, but a swift inspection didn’t reveal any blood. She looked unharmed.
He hunkered down beside her, gently brushing her hair from her face. “Sweetheart?” he asked in a soft tone. “It’s over now. Are you all right?”
She didn’t answer. He sat down on the floor beside her and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close and tight against the warmth of his body. He kept up a reassuring murmur, a gentle sound of reassurance. He could feel the thud of her heartbeat against him, the rhythm hard and alarmingly slow. He held her tighter, his face buried against the richness of her hair.
“Is she all right?” Chance asked as he, too, stepped over Art Sandefer and approached his brother and new sister-in-law. Other people were coming into the room, people who tended to the wounded man. Mack Prewett was one of them, his eyes sharp and hard as he watched his former superior.
“She’ll be fine,” Zane murmured, lifting his head. “She shot Sandefer.”
The brothers’ eyes met in a moment of understanding. The first one was tough. With luck and good care, Sandefer would survive, but Barrie would always be one of those who knew what it was like to pull that trigger.
“How did he know which room?” Zane asked, keeping his voice calm.
Chance sat down on the bed and leaned forward, his forearms braced on his knees. His expression was pleasant enough, his eyes cool and thoughtful. “I must have a leak in my group,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I know who it is, because only one person knew this room number. I’ll take care of it.”
“You do that.”
Barrie stirred in Zane’s grip, her arms lifting to twine around his neck. “Zane,” she said, her voice faint and choked, shaking.
Because he’d felt the same way, he heard the panic in her voice, the despair. “I’m okay,” he whispered, kissing her temple. “I’m okay.”
A sob shook her, then was quickly controlled. She was soldiering on. Emotion swelled in his chest, a huge golden bubble of such force that it threatened to stop his breathing, his heartbeat. He closed his eyes to hold back the tears that burned his lids. “Oh, God,” he said shakily. “I thought I was too late. I saw Sandefer walk in before I could get off a round at him, and then I heard the shot.”
Her arms tightened convulsively around his neck, but she didn’t say anything.
Zane put his hand on her belly, gulping in air a she fought for control. He was trembling, he noticed with distant surprise. Only Barrie could make mincemeat of his nerves. “I want the baby,” he said, his voice still shaking. “But I didn’t even think about it then. All I could think was that if I lost you—” He broke off, unable to continue.
“Baby?” Chance asked, politely inquiring.
Barrie nodded, her head moving against Zane’s chest. Her face was still buried against him, and she didn’t look up.
“Barrie, this is my brother Chance,” Zane said. His tone was still rough, uneven.
Blindly Barrie held out her hand. Amused, Chance gently shook it, then returned it to Zane’s neck. He had yet to see her face. “Glad to meet you,” he said. “I’m happy about the baby, too. That should deflect Mom’s attention for a while.”
The room was filled to overflowing: hotel security, Las Vegas police, medics, not to mention Mack Prewett and the FBI, who were quietly controlling everything. Chance’s people had pulled back, melting into the shadows where they belonged, where they operated best. Chance picked up the phone, made one brief call, then said to Zane, “It’s taken care of.”
Mack Prewett came over and sat down on the bed beside Chance. His face was troubled as he looked at Barrie, clutched so tightly in Zane’s arms. “Is she all right?”
“Yes,” she said, answering for herself.
“Art’s critical, but he might make it. It would save us a lot of trouble if he didn’t.” Mack’s voice was flat, emotionless.
Barrie shuddered.
“You were never meant to be involved, Barrie,” Mack said. “I began to think Art was playing both sides, so I asked your father to help me set him up. The information had to be legitimate, and the ambassador knows more people, has access to more inside information, than can be believed. Art went for the bait like a hungry carp. But then he asked for something really critical, the ambassador stalled, and the next thing we knew, you’d been snatched. Your dad nearly came unglued.”
“Then those bastards in Benghazi knew we were coming in,” Zane said, his eyes going cold.
“Yeah. I managed to shuffle the time frame a little when I gave the information to Art, but that was the most I could do to help. They weren’t expecting you as early as you got there.”
“I couldn’t believe it of him. Art Sandefer, of all people,” Barrie said, lifting her head to look at Mack. “Until I saw his eyes. I thought you were the dirty one.”
Mack smiled crookedly. “It rocked me that you figured out anything was going on at all.”
“Dad tipped me off. He acted so frightened every time I left the house.”
“Art wanted you,” Mack explained. “He was playing it cool for a while, or we would have had this wrapped up weeks ago. But it wasn’t just the information. Art wanted you.”
Barrie was stunned by what Mack was saying. She glanced at Zane and saw his jaw tighten. So that was why she hadn’t been raped in Benghazi; Art had been saving her for himself. He could never have released her, of course, if she had seen his face. Perhaps he would have drugged her, but more likely he would simply have raped her, kept her for himself for a while, then killed her. She shuddered, turning her face once more against Zane’s throat. She was still having trouble believing he was safe and unharmed; it was difficult to drag herself out of the black pit of despair, even though she knew the worst hadn’t happened. She felt numb, sick.
But then a thought occurred to her, one she would have had sooner if concern for Zane hadn’t wiped everything else from her mind. She looked at Mack again. “Then my father’s in the clear.”
“Absolutely. He was working with me from the get-go.” He met her gaze and shrugged. “Your dad can be a pain in the rear, but his loyalty was never in question.”
“When I called him this morning—”
Mack grimaced. “He was relieved to know you loved him enough to call, despite the evidence against him. Your leaving the hotel stirred up a hornet’s nest, though. I thought we had everything under control.”
“How?”
“Me,” Chance interjected, and for the first time Barrie looked at her brother-in-law. She didn’t drool, but she had to admit that his good looks were startling. Viewed objectively, he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. However, she far preferred Zane’s scarred, somber face, with its ancient eyes.
“I checked into another hotel under Zane’s name,” Chance explained. “You weren’t listed at all, but Art knew you were with Zane, because he’d checked the license plate on that rental car and traced the rental to Zane’s credit card. We didn’t want to make it too obvious for him, we wanted him to have to work to find us, so he wouldn’t be suspicious. When he found out you’d married Zane, though, he stopped being so cautious.” Chance grinned. “Then you went for a walk this morning, and fubar happened. The pay phone you chose was right across the street from the hotel where I’d checked in, and Art’s people spotted you immediately.”
Across the room, the medics finally had Art Sandefer ready for transport to a hospital. Zane watched the man being carried out, then cut his narrowed gaze to Mack. “If I’d known about you a little sooner, most of this could have been avoided.”
Mack didn’t back down from that glacial stare. “As far as that goes, Commander, I didn’t expect you to have the contacts you have—” he glanced at Chance “—or to move as fast as you did. I’d been working on Art for months. You made things happen in one day.”
Zane stood, effortlessly lifting Barrie in his arms as he did so. “It’s over now,” he said with finality. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to take care of my wife.”
Taking care of her involved getting a third room, because the suite was in bad shape and he didn’t want her to see it. He placed her on the bed, locked the door, then stripped both her and himself and got into bed with her, holding their naked bodies as close together as possible. They both needed the reassurance of bare skin, no barriers between them. He got hard immediately, but now wasn’t the time for lovemaking.
Barrie couldn’t seem to stop trembling, and, to her astonishment, neither could Zane. They clung together, touching each other’s faces, absorbing the smell and feel of each other in an effort to dispel the terror.
“I love you,” he whispered, holding her so close her ribs ached from the pressure. “God, I was so scared! I can’t keep it together where you’re concerned, sweetheart. For the sake of my sanity, I hope the rest of our lives are as dull as dishwater.”
“They will be,” she promised, kissing his chest. “We’ll work on it.” And tears blurred her eyes, because she hadn’t expected so much, so fast.
Then, finally, it was time for more. Gently he entered her, and they lay entwined, not moving, as if their nerves couldn’t stand a sharp assault now, even one of pleasure. That, too, came in its own time…her pleasure, and his.
Epilogue
“Twins,” Barrie said, her voice still full of stunned bewilderment as she and Zane drove along the road that wound up the side of Mackenzie’s Mountain. “Boys.”
“I told you how it would be,” Zane said, glancing at the mound of her stomach, which was much too big for five months of pregnancy. “Boys.”
She gave him a glassy stare of shock. “You didn’t,” she said carefully, “say they would come in pairs.”
“There haven’t been twins in our family before,” Zane said, just as carefully. In truth, he felt as shaky as Barrie did. “This is a first.”
She stared out the window, her gaze passing blindly over the breathtaking vista of craggy blue mountains. They lived in Wyoming now; with Zane’s two-year tenure as sheriff in Arizona over, he had declined to run for election, and they had moved closer to the rest of the family. Chance had been after him for those two years to join his organization—though Barrie still wasn’t certain exactly what that organization was—and Zane had finally relented. He wouldn’t be doing fieldwork, because he didn’t want to risk the life he had with Barrie and Nick and now these two new babies who were growing inside her, but he had a rare knack for planning for the unexpected, and that was the talent he was using.
The entire family, including her father, was gathered on the mountain to celebrate the Fourth of July, which was the next day. Zane, Barrie and Nick had driven up two days before for an extended visit, but today had been her scheduled checkup, and he’d driven her into town to the doctor’s office. Given the way her waistline had been expanding, they should have expected the news, but Zane had simply figured she was further along in her pregnancy than they’d thought. Seeing those two little fetuses on the ultrasound had been quite a shock, but there hadn’t been any doubt about it. Two heads, two tails, four arms and hands, four legs and feet—and both babies definitely male. Very definitely.
“I can’t think of two names,” Barrie said, sounding very near tears.
Zane reached over to pat her knee. “We have four more months to think of names.”
She sniffed. “There’s no way,” she said, “that I can carry them for four more months. We’ll have to come up with names before then.”
They were big babies, both of them, much bigger than Nick had been at this stage.
“After Nick, it took a lot of courage just to think of having another baby,” she continued. “I’d geared myself up for one. One. Zane, what if they’re both like Nick?”