by Delta James
“That would be me. Come on, babe, maybe he won’t kill me if you’re a witness.”
***
Mac looked up to see John entering with Mandy at his side. There was no sign of Willa.
“Let me guess, my darling Willa managed to free herself from federal custody?”
“I’m not sure she ever thought she was actually in custody. After all, you didn’t Mirandize her.”
Mac snorted. “What she thought was that she knew better and never had any intention of doing as she was told.”
“I see you haven’t forgotten everything you learned about her when you were together,” said Mandy with a smile. “Too bad you didn’t remember it fast enough.”
“Mandy, it’s not funny,” John said in a warning tone.
“Let her have her fun, John.” Mac turned to look at Mandy. “When I catch up with your buddy, she’s going to wish she’d taken me up on my offer to stay with you and John until this is over.” He turned to John. “Where are we with finding Eastwick and Willa?”
“Your field guys are trying to pick up Eastwick’s trail. Thom and Adam are checking Willa’s house. When you found her and Eastwick, did she have some mustangs with her?”
“Yep. She closed a gate to keep them penned up. I suspect that’s where she’ll be. If so, just have someone up there to sit on her without her knowing. I’ll deal with her as soon as they let me out of here.”
“You’ll deal with her?” said Mandy.
Mac nodded. “Personally and up close. And from that point forward, I will ensure she stays out of harm’s way.”
“In the interest of saving you some wear and tear, don’t forget she’s one of the best shots I’ve ever seen and is considered to be the best tracker in the region,” said John. “In general, she doesn’t recognize or yield to authority any better now than when you two were together.”
Mac smiled at him. “Well, that’s going to have to change. They should release me in an hour or two.”
“Against medical advice, I’m guessing,” said John.
“What do they know? It’s nothing. We can throw some disinfectant on it and a bandage, and I’ll be good as new. Doesn’t even hurt…much. But we don’t have time. I need to track down Willa, and we need to get Eastwick before he hightails it to parts unknown and un-extraditable. Why don’t you two take off? Mandy, you make him take you out to dinner. It may be your last chance for the next few days or a week.”
She grinned. “He was going to take Willa and me. I guess I won’t have to share now.”
She leaned over the bed and kissed his cheek.
“What’s that for?” Mac asked.
“I hope you feel better, and I’m glad you’re back. But don’t you dare hurt her again.”
Mac took her hand in his. “I won’t. I give you my word. Well, that’s not true. Let’s say I won’t wound her heart or her spirit again. Her ass…that’s another thing altogether.”
Chapter 9
Willa gave one last good stretch before saddling Gator and heading for the canyon. She looked at her phone and, deciding she’d be better off without it, left it sitting on the tack box outside Gator’s stall. She needed to get those mustangs moved to another one of her hidey holes as Mac had dubbed them. She wouldn’t have much of a head start, but she hoped to have gained at least a few hours before anyone noticed she was no longer in protective custody.
She headed out, taking a shortcut to where the mustangs were, hopefully, undisturbed. The shortcut also had the advantage of utilizing less open ground. The problem was going to be moving the mustangs without being seen. In a perfect world, she would return to the canyon, give Gator some downtime, break down her camp and then move the horses after dark. She very much doubted she had that kind of time.
Once in the canyon, Willa made short work of taking down her tent and stowing gear. She had no way to move her things from the canyon and hoped she’d be able to retrieve what she left behind at some point in the future. But there was nothing to be done about it. The mustangs had to come first. If it were summer, Willa could move them up into the mountains, but, being late fall, they needed to be someplace they could hole up if they had an early snowfall.
Having secured her gear as best she could, Willa tightened Gator’s cinch, gave the big gelding a pat, and once again mounted. She laughed as the thought ran through her head that she wouldn’t mind mounting Mac again. She laughed even harder when she immediately began thinking Mac was more stallion than gelding, and he liked to do the mounting. Her nipples beaded up under her sweater. Willa shook her head. She didn’t need to have her mind wandering in that direction. The fact that she liked the picture she envisioned was bothersome.
The last thing she needed was to have Ethan McDaniel back in her life. She loved Mandy to death and knew her marriage was one where John was the final authority. When she and Mac had been together, Mandy had hinted Mac most likely would want a similar arrangement. Willa had no need for anybody’s leadership but her own.
Willa rode up to the gate blocking the entrance to the canyon and opened it. Having secured it open, she loped Gator around to the other side of the herd then started them toward the entrance. She didn’t want to move them too fast and had to work to keep them bunched up to head through the tunnel and then in the direction she wanted them to go once they were behind the waterfall. There was a short space where she would need to move the mustangs at speed in order to get them to stay together and not scatter. Once she got them into the canyon system, she could ease off as they would be more difficult to find.
As soon as most of the herd had cleared the tunnel, Willa hollered and drove them in the direction she needed to go. She heard the crack of the gunshot only slightly ahead of feeling the bullet whiz by her shoulder, taking a piece of muscle and skin with it and throwing her forward onto Gator’s neck. Another bullet zipped by where her head would have been had she not been flung forward. A third shot rang out but neither hit her nor went past her.
What she did hear were the blades of a helicopter cutting through the air. Willa looked down; the shot that had clipped her had hit something, and she was rapidly losing blood. She surmised the third shot had been from the chopper where a lone figure hung out of the rear door. Willa brought Gator to a halt and watched the chopper land a safe distance away. She turned to see the mustangs galloping in the opposite direction from her to put as much distance between what was happening and themselves as they could.
Her first thought was shit! Her second was while she’d play hell trying to find that herd again, at least they were headed toward protected land. She wheeled Gator around, prepared to confront whoever it was that had stampeded the herd. The man with the rifle was standing outside the helicopter and seemed to be scanning the area from where the shot that hit her had come.
Willa was unsure as to the cause of her lower belly doing flip-flops as the man left the chopper and headed toward her in a crouched run. The cause became clear as she became pretty damn sure it was Mac. As he came closer to her and quit bending over, she could clearly see his face—he was not a happy man.
“Marshal?” she challenged with as much bravado as she could manage.
“Don’t you ‘Marshal’ me, Willa. Jesus, you’ve been hit!”
“He just grazed me. Since you stampeded my herd to kingdom come, I suppose I’ll head for home, get this cleaned and then come back in the morning to retrieve my things.”
She reined Gator away from him, but he grabbed the rein.
“Like hell you will.” Turning toward the chopper, Mac hollered, “Gus? Come take charge of this beast. Your boss and I are headed to the hospital.”
Gus hopped out of the helicopter and headed toward them.
“Let go of my rein, MacDaniel.”
He grinned. “No, Willa.”
“You can’t tell me no. You have no authority over me.”
“You’d best get used to the idea of no, and that I can and will enforce it.”
“
Fuck you,” she spat, ignoring the way his tone of voice and assumption of his dominance over her made her nipples bead up and her pussy clench in anticipation. The latter caused her the most concern.
“I will when you ask me nice. Now climb down off the damn horse.”
Before she could put a boot in his face or better her position, Gus had joined them and taken the other rein.
“Jesus, Willa, you’re bleeding. Let me help you down.” He turned to Mac. “You’re going to take her to a doctor, right?”
“Right as rain,” said Mac cordially. “I’ll make sure Willa is well cared for from here on out.”
Gus laughed. “You may have forgotten that can prove to be a far more difficult task than catching Eastwick.”
“Willa isn’t going to be difficult…are you, sweetheart?”
“Willa,” she said through clenched teeth, “is going to be a major pain in the ass until you leave her the fuck alone.”
Mac surprised her by laughing as he pulled her from the saddle and whispered, “Settle down, or the only ass in major pain will be yours.”
Willa was taken aback, not only by his bold words, but by how they made her feel. She was almost dizzy from the feeling radiating up from her lower pelvis but told herself it was the loss of blood.
Turning to Gus, Mac continued, “Willa is now in federal custody as a material witness.”
As he led her toward the helicopter, he Mirandized her. Willa tried to struggle and break his grip, but her efforts proved unsuccessful. The pilot and another man with a rifle approached.
“Junior, sit up front with the pilot.”
Mac ushered Willa into the seat behind the pilot and buckled her in. “Stay put.”
He ran around the front of the chopper and hopped in beside her then fastened his own belt. The pilot turned to look at Mac, who gave a nod, and the blades started rotating. They were quickly airborne, and he told the pilot to head to the hospital.
As much as she hated to admit it, flying in the chopper scared her to death, and she found Mac’s presence and his gentle holding of her hand reassuring. In short order, they landed on the hospital helipad. Mac came around and helped her out.
“I can walk,” she hissed as he propelled her toward a waiting wheelchair.
“You can ride in the wheelchair or I’ll sling you over my shoulder…your choice,” he said pleasantly but with steel in his voice.
As her resistance lessened, he helped her to sit.
“Good girl,” he said and received a swift kick in the shins that only caused him to chuckle. He leaned down and whispered, “Naughty girl.”
Willa couldn’t believe how his praising her seemed to settle over her like a warm cashmere shawl. But the admonishment that she was misbehaving sent the butterflies that had taken up residence in her lower pelvic region whenever he was near into full flight. It was very disconcerting, not to mention annoying.
Mac walked close by as she was wheeled down to the emergency room where she was quickly patched up. The wound had been as superficial as any wound from a bullet could be. It had taken off some of her skin along her upper arm close to her shoulder but had not penetrated deeper.
The doctor addressed Mac when he was finished. “I wouldn’t mind keeping her overnight, but it’s not absolutely necessary—”
“Good,” interrupted Willa. “I’m going home.”
Mac smiled. “If you think she’s fine without additional medical attention, I think she’s probably better off in our safe house in Phoenix.”
The doctor nodded. “I’ll get her prescriptions ready, and you can take her out of here.”
The doctor turned and left the room, leaving Willa and Mac alone.
“I’m going home,” Willa insisted.
“Not your choice,” said Mac. “You’re in official protective custody. In case you missed it, you got lucky this evening. That guy wasn’t shooting to spook your mustangs. He meant to kill you. I mean to see he doesn’t have a second chance to finish the job.”
“You can’t just hijack my life.”
“I can, and I have. The question is, do I need to put you in restraints before we drive to Phoenix? Or should we save that until we have a chance to settle things between us?”
His easy, sexually laced banter left the butterflies in her belly fluttering wildly.
Mac turned his back on her. “Get dressed, Willa. We need to be moving.”
“Quit telling me what to do. I’m dressing because I don’t want to have to hail a cab in a hospital gown.”
“You’d better start doing as you’re told. I wasn’t kidding about the federal custody and safe house…or the restraints, for that matter.”
“I’ll hire a lawyer.”
“You can call whomever you like tomorrow morning over a secure line.”
Willa sat down hard on the bed. “You really think Eastwick tried to have me killed?” she whispered.
Mac turned to watch her face. He sat on the mattress next to her and took her hand in his.
“I do. And the guy will keep coming until he’s accomplished what it takes to get paid.”
“What about my horses? My business?”
“You have good people in Gus and Mandy. They’ll take care of both. Mandy said you don’t have a job for two weeks. Eastwick didn’t confess to anybody but you. You can put the nail in his coffin, and he knows it.” He stood up and extended his hand. “You ready to leave?”
“Um, sure, but don’t we need to wait for the prescriptions and to sign out…?”
“Nope, John can follow up to close things out and retrieve whatever you need. Right now, you and I are going to slip out the side entrance and head for an unmarked car.”
Mac helped her to her feet and, with her elbow securely in his hand, directed her out of the emergency room, down the hall, and out a service entrance. He kept her moving at a fairly good clip until they came to an SUV. Mac ushered Willa into the rear seat and made her lie down then threw a blanket over her. Locking her in the backseat, Mac opened the door on the driver’s side, got in, started the engine, and drove away from the hospital.
They had driven for about fifteen minutes when Mac asked, “Would you like me to pull over so you can sit up front with me?”
“I want to go home,” said Willa stubbornly.
“Not on your list of choices.”
“What is?”
He pulled over, got out, and came around to her side to let her out. “Choice one: settle down and behave yourself. We’ll then head for the safe house. Choice two: continue to misbehave and I’ll drag your ass to the safe house, put you over my knee, and paddle your backside until you decide to behave.”
Willa was unsure of how to respond—partly because she didn’t think US Marshals talked to their material witnesses that way; partly because while they had played at spanking when they were together, it had never been to assert his dominance; and partly because she didn’t like the way what he said made her feel. She wanted to feel annoyed and outraged instead of aroused and intrigued. She’d never admitted it to him, but the few times he had swatted her ass when annoyed or when he was fucking her had been incredibly erotic and intoxicating.
He smiled as he helped her out to get into the front of the vehicle. “I know which one I’d prefer, but I’ll let you have a bit of time to think about it.”
Willa allowed herself to be helped into the passenger seat, and Mac once again buckled her in.
“Isn’t this kidnapping?” asked Willa politely.
Mac chuckled. “No. You are officially a material witness in a federal case and, therefore, under my authority.”
Willa snorted. “I’m not under anyone’s anything, and I acknowledge no authority but my own.”
“Look, Willa, I don’t mean to be a hard-ass and point out the obvious, but you were shot today. Now, unless you have some other nefarious life you developed since we split up that no one knows anything about, I’m pretty damn sure Eastwick hired somebody to kill you. He als
o confessed to you that he murdered his wife. So, until we capture him—”
“If,” said Willa.
“Until,” said Mac with emphasis, “we capture, try, and convict the son of a bitch, you will remain in federal custody and particularly within the scope of my protection.”
“Your case for holding me against my wishes will never stand up in court, and you’d be better off expending your time trying to catch Eastwick.”
“And if you’re not careful, you won’t be sitting down very comfortably. Now, knock it off. As I said, you can call a lawyer on a secure line tomorrow, but if it goes to court…you’ll lose. Jesus, I’m trying to keep you safe. What is your problem?”
“I don’t like you ordering me around.”
Mac leaned close to her. “Don’t you? I think what’s annoying you is that you are happier to see me than you’d liked to be and almost as turned on by me as I am by you.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I no longer find you the least bit attractive.”
“Don’t you?” he said, seductively placing his hand on her thigh.
Instead of reaching farther up to touch her in the juncture of her legs, he gave her thigh a friendly pat. “You hungry? If you are, we’ll swing through a drive-through. If you’d rather wait, I can make something when we get to the house.”
Mac started the SUV and pulled out onto the road. It didn’t take long for Willa to realize they were headed in the wrong direction.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, genius, but Phoenix is north and west of Mesa, and you’re heading due south.”
“You’d be right if we were heading to a safe house in Phoenix.”
“You said we were going there.”
Mac smiled. “Yes, I did. Often and loud.”
“You mean you wanted anybody who heard you to think we’re heading to Phoenix?”
“Yep. In fact, we’ve had a decoy SUV heavily armed with men and firepower heading that way. Meanwhile, you and I are going to head to a little place very few people know about outside of Chandler. We’ll be safe enough there.”