by Harper Allen
The gun in his hand came swiftly up. Caro caught a glimpse of his face, contorted with pain and madness, and saw the gleam of tears in his eyes as he began to pull the trigger.
“This one’s for my father—”
Jess fell bonelessly to the ground, the huge hunting knife in his back still quivering from its flight. From the shadows behind him stepped a figure.
“I’ll take it from here, son,” said the figure, bending swiftly and dislodging the knife from Jess’s back. He straightened up and turned a nightmarish visage toward Del.
“Hello, Lieutenant Hawkins,” he said in a voice that to a frozen Caro sounded familiar, clogged as if there were stones grating together in his throat. “It’s taken me over thirty years…but finally I’ve reunited with my old Beta Beta Force brother-in-arms again.”
Caro stared in horror at the man she knew as her sinister rescuer from the fire on the Dinetah, the man Alice Tahe knew as Skinwalker…and the man, she realized in dawning terror, that Del had known as Zeke Harmon.
“UNTIL A MAN KNOWS where to find his soul, how can he keep it safe?”
Gabe Riggs finally had the answer to the question Alice Tahe had asked him earlier that evening. “You can’t, Grandmother,” he said under his breath. “You can’t, so you have to learn the hard way just how big a fool you’ve been. You have to find out that the woman who’s the very soul of you is somewhere out there in the night with a killer on the loose. And by then, there’s a chance you’ve found out too late.”
Gabe paused, the darkness pressing in all around him. He bent down and brushed his fingertips lightly along the scrubby grass that grew here on this isolated portion of the Double B property. Rubbing his fingers together, he felt the residue of leaked oil from Del’s ancient Jeep—the residue he’d been tracking by touch since the telltale black drips that he’d noticed in the glare of his headlights on the road leading from the house to the west pasture had abruptly veered off, and he’d continued following them on foot.
He was still on their trail, thank God. He kept going.
Half an hour ago he’d returned to the house to see if there’d been any word from Leo. He’d stood in the middle of the Double B’s empty kitchen and felt cold dread slice through him at the realization that Caro and Del were gone. In that moment, the words he’d spoken to her this morning had echoed mockingly in his mind.
He had told her he’d decided to go back to the job. He’d assured her that he would see her and Emily several times a year. He’d presented his plan to her as if he was offering a future between them, but really he’d been offering her no kind of future at all.
Because you were too damn scared to, weren’t you, he told himself savagely. Face it, Riggs—since the moment you saw her at Larry Kanin’s chalet, you’ve known in your heart that if you had a future with any woman, that woman was Caro. But having a future with Caro meant commitment, and commitment meant you couldn’t remain a loner. And remaining a loner was the best excuse you could give yourself for not coming back to the Double B and making peace with who you are.
So, yeah, he’d been scared, he admitted as he bent again and brushed his fingertips along the grass. The first time he’d been so damn scared he’d ended up in the desert, with the memory of her haunting his dreams. The second time had been even worse, because by then he’d realized how much he wanted to take that final step with her. He had said the words. He had seen the pain in her eyes. And he had known he’d just lost her.
Telling himself she had been the one who’d destroyed any hope of a future between them by withholding the truth about Emily had worked for a while. But he’d returned from the Dinetah a changed man, even if he wasn’t sure how that change had come about, and he hadn’t been able to lie to himself any longer.
He hadn’t been able to lie…but he still hadn’t let himself acknowledge the whole truth. That had only come to him as he’d stood in the empty Double B kitchen and known that if anything happened to Caro, his soul would be lost.
Gabe reached down again, but instead of touching grass, this time he barked his knuckles against a slab of rock. The rock was covered in oil. Slowly he straightened, every nerve in his body on sudden alert, and as he did he thought he could see a faint reddish glow coming from just ahead of him, where the terrain dipped down into a dry wash.
A moment later he was on his belly, inching forward toward the rim of the incline. He raised his head to look over it…and heard the voice of a dead man.
“This one’s for my father—”
From his vantage point fifty feet up, Gabe saw Jess crash to the ground, and for one confused moment held himself responsible for the instantaneous death he’d just witnessed. The shotgun scabbard on his back was empty, the weapon itself was in his hands and he was sighting down the barrel of it, although he’d drawn it with such reflexive speed he had no firm recollection of his actions. But his finger was still on the trigger and the trigger hadn’t yet been pulled. He eased off on it. Only then did he see the hilt of the knife protruding from Jess’s body.
Jess’s body? That shock was more than he dared puzzle over right now, Gabe told himself. He had to get to Caro and his daughter—from the crying he could hear coming from Jess’s parked truck, it was obvious that Emily was in the vehicle. All he really needed to know at this point was that somehow Jess hadn’t been killed on a lonely road in Mexico two weeks previously, but had been alive up until a few seconds ago—alive and, judging from the gun he’d been pointing at Del, acting out a murderous agenda of his own.
Which means that whoever threw that knife just saved Del’s life, he told himself edgily. Except, I don’t think I’ll run down there just yet to thank him. In fact, I think I’ll tighten up on this trigger finger again and—
A man came from the shadows behind Jess, stooped swiftly and retrieved the knife, saying something in an oddly hoarse tone that Gabe couldn’t catch. The man turned to Del, and this time Gabe did hear the words.
“It’s taken me over thirty years, but finally I’ve reunited with my old Beta Beta Force brother-in-arms again.”
Maybe if he hadn’t just seen another man who was supposed to be dead, his mind might have fought against accepting that the tall figure with the horrifically scarred face confronting Del and Caro had to be Zeke Harmon, Gabe thought, a cold calm settling over him. But if one ghost had threatened the Double B tonight, why the hell not two?
He steadied the shotgun.
“No!”
Icy sweat broke out on his brow and instantly he swung the barrel of his weapon to one side. In the split second that Del had shouted out his protest at Harmon and that the man grabbed Caro and laid the blade of his knife against her throat, it had been Caro’s terrified face that appeared in the sights of his shotgun.
He can’t know I’m here. But he was once part of a crack covert-ops team, and he’s instinctively shielding himself from the one piece of terrain that an enemy might aim from, Gabe thought, fear gripping him at the sight of the blade gleaming against Caro’s skin. So I’m going to have to go down there to get him.
And he didn’t have much time, he realized, beginning to move in a running crouch down the side of the wash, as Harmon addressed Del.
“Thirty-odd years is a long time, Lieutenant. Long enough for a man to work out the perfect plan, especially if most of the other ways men find to fill their time are no longer available to him. The booby-trap bomb I rigged that took your legs didn’t leave me with much of a face, as you see—although I admit I came off better than you, and a lot better than the nameless soldier I killed and exchanged ID tags with, to be identified as me by the authorities. But from that day forward I was forced to live my life under cover of darkness, to hide my hideousness from the world.”
“Let the woman go, Zeke,” Del said steadily. “She has nothing to do with this. This is Beta Beta Force business.”
Halfway down the slope, Gabe felt a pebble dislodge itself under his shoe. He froze, his gaze on Harmon. The man in
stantly stiffened and raised his head as if testing the air for any scent of danger.
“…an evil that walks like a man and talks like a man. But this evil is no man, it is a ghost. He means to bring death to all you hold dear…”
“You were right, Grandmother,” Gabe breathed, as Harmon turned his attention back to Del. “He calls himself Zeke Harmon, but your ancestors and mine would have recognized him for what he is—a Skinwalker. If you can hear me now, pray that this Dineh warrior’s aim is true when the moment comes to slay this evil.”
“No, Lieutenant, my business with you is personal. And the woman is very much a part of it…the woman and the child, both.”
In the eerie reddish glow, it seemed to Gabe, as he risked a glance, that Harmon’s grin looked bloodstained. Harmon continued. “That’s the perfect revenge I came up with—for you to see your granddaughter and the woman who might have been your daughter-in-law die before you do. Why else would I have saved your life a few minutes ago, and the woman’s when my son tried to kill her on the Dinetah?”
“You’ve made a terrible mistake.”
Caro’s tone was shaky but clear, and at the sound of it cold fear sluiced through Gabe. Don’t provoke him, princess, he begged her silently, raising the shotgun and then lowering again, unable to get a clear shot.
“Emily isn’t Del’s granddaughter. I don’t know how you would have gotten that idea, but surely now that you—”
“Oh, pretty mama, it’s going to be a real shame slitting that slim throat of yours.” Harmon shook his head, seemingly in regret. “But I guess I’ll have to be content with the memento I took from you last time. I liked you better with long hair, you know,” he added. Without warning, his voice hardened. “Do you think I don’t know all there is to know about my enemy? After thirty years of living in the shadows, I have methods and contacts you couldn’t even imagine. The child is Hawkins’s granddaughter, and if there was any doubt of that, your conversation with my son confirmed it. All you have left now is a choice, Lieutenant. Who dies in front of you first—pretty mama here, or the little one?”
“That’s not his choice, that’s mine.” Caro’s words were strained. Her neck still arched backward and the knife poised by her jugular, she slanted her gaze sideways at her captor.
Harmon shifted his position slightly, and frustration edged Gabe’s nerves. It was as if the man could sense his presence, he thought, cautiously circling closer to the truck. Every time it seemed an opportunity was about to present itself for a clear shot that wouldn’t risk Caro’s life, Harmon moved just enough to keep her head in front of his.
And a head shot is what you’ve got to get here, Gabe told himself sharply. Anything less, and that bastard will kill her before he falls.
“I’m Emily’s mother, so it’s my choice to make. I choose to die before my child does,” Caro said, her gaze still on Harmon. “Do you want to know why? It’s because I’ll die knowing I bought her a few more minutes of life—and that in those few minutes, help could arrive.”
Her eyes blazed blue out of her white face. “Even if the cavalry came charging over that hill right now, I’d insist on seeing my daughter safe before anyone made a move toward me, do you understand, Harmon?” Her lips pressed together. “But of course, you don’t. Despite your rape of Jess’s mother, you were never a parent, and only a mother would know how I feel—a mother…or a father.”
Harmon has the senses of a wolf, but he doesn’t know I’m here, Gabe thought. Del doesn’t, either, and neither can Caro. But although she can’t know, she hopes I’m somewhere I can hear her—because what she said just now was meant for me, not Harmon.
She wanted him to go to their daughter before he did anything else. She didn’t know what she was asking. Even if everything went wrong—and it’s not going to, he told himself grimly—and his shot missed Harmon, the man wouldn’t be able to make it here to the truck to snatch Emily before a second round took him down. It just wasn’t humanly possible to—
But what about Zeke Harmon was even faintly human anymore? Gabe thought, fear flashing through him. If there was a chance in a million that one hair of Emily’s head could be harmed by the thing that Alice Tahe called Skinwalker, could he afford to take that chance?
“Then, that’s how it’ll be, pretty mama. Lieutenant, we were once a band of brothers—you, me, Bird and MacLeish. We all bore the same tattoo of two bees fighting to the death and it was supposed to symbolize that any one of us would die defending another…”
“Yah-ta-hey, my daughter,” Gabe said softly as he reached into the back seat of the truck and lifted Emily into his arms. “It’s your daddy, come to dry your tears. But first we need to get your mom.”
She’d been quietly grizzling, her tiny face wet with tears, but at his whisper she fell silent. Gabe dropped a quick kiss on the top of her dark curls and began to creep out of the shadow of the truck, alert to the least indication that Harmon’s words to Del were drawing to an end.
“…Bird and MacLeish were followers. That didn’t mean they didn’t deserve retribution, but when the plans I made for them didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, I didn’t waste time in trying again,” Harmon said in his hoarse voice.
He had to be talking about the recent incidents at the Double B that had targeted Susannah and Tess, and through them Daniel Bird and John MacLeish, Gabe thought as he moved cautiously closer, Emily in the crook of one arm and his shotgun ready to be brought instantly into firing position in his other hand. He saw Del’s gaze flick from Harmon to Emily and then back again, and he felt his heart skip a beat.
Don’t try it, Hawkins, he thought fearfully. He’ll kill her before you could jump him, and you know it. Just hang tight, Dad, and let me get that one clear shot I need.
“But you, Lieutenant—you were my commanding officer. I would have gone to hell and back for you, and I always thought you would do the same for me. Instead you handed me over to the authorities, and when I escaped you came after me to kill me.”
“You had to be stopped, Harmon,” Del said emotionlessly. “And as for going to hell, you sent yourself there when you stopped being a marine and became a monster.”
“And now I’m sending you, Lieutenant,” Harmon rasped. “But you’ll go there screaming at the sight of your granddaughter’s and her mother’s deaths.”
The scar tissue that surrounded his mouth stretched into a smile. Still pulling Caro’s head back by her hair, he put her slightly away from him. The blade of the knife at her throat gleamed red in the eerie light.
“You destroyed me once, Hawkins. Now I’m destroying you. The past has become the present—”
“And the circle has come around, Harmon,” Gabe said harshly, stepping out of the shadows as he brought the shotgun up and fired.
He’d needed one clear shot, he thought as, holding his startled but uncrying daughter tightly to him, he ran toward Caro. He’d gotten that one shot, and his aim had been true.
Harmon’s lifeless body lay on the ground in front of Del. Even as Gabe reached Caro and drew her a few feet away, he saw his father strip off his jacket and throw it over what had been Harmon’s head before turning aside with a grimace.
“Emily—is she all right?” Caro’s gaze had been blank with shock. Now momentary fear replaced the blankness, and Gabe hastened to reassure her.
“She’s fine, princess. Not a scratch on her, although I think she’s none too happy about her daddy shaking like a leaf while he’s holding her. Maybe— Maybe you’d better take her from me.”
“How did you find us? How did you know where Emily was? Did you—” Caro’s stream of questions abruptly halted. She stared up at Gabe, tears flooding her eyes as she held her daughter to her breast. “You are shaking,” she whispered unsteadily. “Why?”
“Because I knew I had one chance to save my soul, sweetheart,” he replied hoarsely. “And I was so afraid I might lose the woman I love before I could ask her if she’d marry me.”
“Son
, if you’re heading up to a proposal, I’d say you’ve got maybe two seconds to get it out before the whole damn Double B contingent sweeps down on us.”
Glancing upward at Del’s laconic comment, Gabe saw several sets of headlights come to a stop at the top of the rise. He gave his father a wry grin.
“Sir, yes, sir,” he drawled, before meeting Caro’s gaze again. “We can get into details and explanations about what just happened here later, honey,” he said. “Right now, I think I’ll take the advice of a crusty old ex-marine and cut to the chase. I want a future with you, Caro—a future with you and my daughter and maybe a few more children. That future’s going to be right here on the Double B, if you don’t mind becoming a ranch wife. Marry me, princess?”
“Only as soon as I can, Riggs,” Caro whispered raggedly, a brilliant smile lighting up the sheen of happy tears in her eyes before she closed them and rose up on her tiptoes.
“Only as soon as we can,” Gabe agreed, his mouth coming down on hers.
Epilogue
“Greta looks positively glowing. I don’t know why none of us guessed she might be pregnant,” Caro said to her brand-new husband. She glanced happily around the flower-festooned yard of the Double B where their wedding guests, including Alice Tahe, were enjoying themselves. “Thank goodness the tests she had at the hospital last month all came back fine.”
“Dixon didn’t get too far before the feds caught him, did he,” Gabe said. He winced. “You realize I’m going to have a little brother or sister? That’s not so bad, I guess, but Del’s so thrilled about it, he’s almost insufferable. If I hear one more veiled reference to Greta’s old mustang again…”
He grinned at her, shifting a sleeping Emily in his arms. “I’m happy for my father. I’m happy for Con and Tess, too, with the little one they’re expecting. Tye and Susannah say they want a few months of baby Danny sleeping right through the night before they consider an addition to the family, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Daniel Bird becomes a grandfather for the second time sooner than he thinks.”