Wyoming Bold (9781460320891)

by Palmer, Diana

  The man was less aggressive now. In fact, he shifted his belligerent posture and lost his arrogance. “Hey, no problem, you can see her if you want to. No need to go calling attorneys, for God’s sake. Merissa, come out here!”

  The tone of his voice made Tank furious. He held in his rage and waited, not too patiently, until a subdued, worried Merissa came out onto the porch. She looked ragged. Her eyes had dark circles under them and she was obviously distressed.

  “Come here, honey,” Tank said softly and held out his arm.

  She ran to him, sobbing, to be enclosed hungrily in his embrace.

  “It’s all right,” he whispered. “It’s going to be all right.”

  She clung closer.

  “What the hell is that all about?” the man on the porch growled. “I haven’t hurt you!”

  “Make him let Mama come out here,” she whispered urgently in Tank’s ear, so that the man couldn’t overhear her. “Please, Dalton!”

  Tank smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry.” He let her go. “I want to talk to Clara,” he said out loud.

  Now the man really looked unsettled. “She’s indisposed.”

  “Rourke,” Tank said, nodding toward him.

  Rourke pulled back his wool jacket and disclosed a holstered .45 automatic. At the same time, Carson moved to his right and pushed back his own jacket, showing the big Bowie knife.

  “Are you...threatening me?” the man stammered.

  “I want to see Clara,” Tank told him. “Whether or not it’s a threat depends on whether or not she comes out here.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Our sheriff, Cody Banks, is a good friend of mine. I have his number on speed dial.”

  Now the man was really unsettled. He swallowed. “She had a fall,” he said quickly. “She has a few bruises. It ain’t my fault!”

  “Clara!” Tank called shortly.

  The door opened. Little Clara, nervous and shivering, came into view. There were bruises on her face.

  “Come here to me,” Tank said softly. “It’s all right,” he added when she looked with evident fear at her ex-husband. “Come on. He isn’t going to touch you!” He glared at the man as he said it, and his expression was dangerous.

  Clara ran down the steps, almost stumbling. Tank put his arm around her. “You okay?” he asked softly.

  She sobbed. “I am now, thanks.”

  He hugged her and then let her go. He pushed the speed dial on the phone. “Cody?” he asked when his friend answered. “We’ve got a little situation here, and I need some help.”

  “Hey, there’s no need for that!” the man on the porch yelled. “No need at all!”

  Rourke walked up on the porch. He stood beside the man and looked down at Clara. “Did he strike you, Mrs. Baker? Please don’t be afraid to answer me. He will not touch you again. You have my word on it.”

  Clara drew in a shattered breath. “Yes. He beat me up because I asked him to leave,” she said in a defeated tone.

  “That’s a damned lie!” the man yelled. “She fell! You tell him you fell, Clara, or you’ll regret it!”

  “Terroristic threats and acts,” Rourke said quietly. “Assault and battery. My, my, you are going to be in trouble.”

  “Like hell I am,” the man said nervously and tried to make a run for it. Rourke had him on the floor in a heartbeat, and cuffed.

  “You carry handcuffs around with you?” Carson asked in a shocked tone.

  “Hey, you never know when they might come in handy,” Rourke told him. “No, actually, I bought them a week ago, with other...intentions in mind.”

  “You let me go! I want to go!” the man groaned. “It wasn’t even my idea to come back here, but I’ve got an outstanding warrant in San Diego and he threatened to go to my parole officer!”

  “He, who?” Rourke asked, jerking him to his feet.

  The man hesitated. He actually looked afraid.

  Tank joined Rourke on the porch. “Who?”

  “Don’t know his name,” Baker said miserably. “He wore a suit. Said he was a fed and he could lock me up for ten years. He said to come here and say the house was mine. Don’t know why. He paid for the plane ticket. Listen, I don’t want no more trouble! I just want to go home!”

  “Not just yet,” Tank told him acidly. “First there’s a little matter of assault and battery and some missing paperwork.”

  “Damned paperwork’s under the mattress in the spare bedroom,” he grumbled. “And I’m sorry I hit her, but she told me to get out.” His face flamed. “Ain’t no woman alive talking to me like that on my own place!”

  “It’s not your place,” Merissa said with cold pride. She was shaking but her voice was almost steady. “It’s ours. And it will suit us both very well if we never have to see you again.”

  “You won’t,” Tank assured her. He looked at the man with icy eyes. “He’s going to jail for a long, long time.”

  “He’ll get me a lawyer,” Baker told him. “He’ll pay for it. He’ll say those women lied.”

  “You want to take a look at Clara’s face and run that line by me again?” Tank demanded.

  “Well, I ain’t going to jail!”

  He broke away from the men and took off out the back of the cabin.

  “Carson, you’re quicker than I am,” Rourke began.

  Just as Carson started to the side of the cabin, there was a loud report.

  Tank swore once, violently. “Stay with Clara and Merissa,” he told Rourke. He and Carson ran around to the back of the cabin. Just down the trail there was a crumpled body.

  Carson went down on one knee. He felt for a pulse he knew he wouldn’t find and got to his feet again. “Better call the coroner,” he told Tank, and deliberately stood in front of him. “Judging from the size of the exit wound, it was a high caliber rifle. Get out of here, quick!” he added. “Go! He isn’t after me!”

  Tank went around the side of the house and up onto the porch. “We’d better get inside,” he said.

  “Bill?” Clara asked worriedly.

  “Dead,” Tank said bluntly. “I’m sorry.”

  Clara wept quietly. “I’m sorry he’s dead, but only because he was once my husband. He was the most cruel human being I’ve ever known.”

  “I can understand why,” Tank said, looking at her ravaged, bruised face. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” He put an arm around Merissa, who was shaking, and held her close. He pulled Clara to his other side. “It’s going to be all right,” he said softly. “Nobody’s hurting my girls on my watch.”

  They both sobbed. He just held them closer.

  * * *

  THE SHERIFF CAME first, followed by EMTs, and a deputy stood watch over the remains until the coroner was able to get there.

  Sheriff Cody Banks was furious when he saw Clara’s face. “Any man who would do that to a woman should be shot,” he muttered furiously.

  “That’s why I phoned you,” Tank said. “I meant to have him arrested for it. But he ran, and someone took him out. The same someone,” he added heavily, “that I think is after me.”

  “You want to run that by me again?” Cody asked.

  Tank nodded. “You can come to supper. We’ll tell you everything we know.” He indicated his two male companions. “There’s a lot going on.”

  “I wouldn’t mind supper,” Cody replied with a grin. “I’m so tired of burnt eggs and half-cooked bacon.”

  “You’re not married?” Rourke asked.

  Cody shook his head sadly. “You know that new strain of flu that’s going around, the deadly one? She was a doctor. She was treating a patient in a hospital down in Boulder. She died.”

  “I’m sorry,” Rourke said softly.

  “Me, too,” Cody replied. “It was over a
year ago, but it takes some getting used to. We’d only been married two years.”

  Tank looked at Merissa and imagined how he would have felt in Cody’s position. It was devastating.

  “What about Clara and Merissa?” he asked the room at large. “Are they going to be safe here?”

  “You want a gut reply, no,” Rourke said abruptly. “If he’s brazen enough to kill one of his own accomplices, he’ll kill anybody. He brought Clara’s husband back here for some reason that we don’t know. But it means he’s targeted them. Maybe he knew the man’s past and hoped he’d kill them.” He shook his head. “Whatever the reason, they’re in as much danger as you are.”

  “They can come and live at the ranch,” Tank said. “We’ve got three spare bedrooms. It’s a huge place.”

  “It’s such an imposition,” Clara protested.

  “Yes,” Merissa added worriedly.

  Tank just smiled. “Lots of room and good company. You can play with Mallory’s baby, too,” he added.

  Clara and Merissa just melted. “Their little boy?” Merissa asked, and her eyes lit up. “I love babies.”

  Tank looked absolutely smitten. He sighed and smiled to himself.

  “Babies!” Carson’s face was harder than stone. He turned on his heel and walked away. It was such an odd reaction that Tank and Rourke exchanged curious looks.

  “Well, if you want my vote,” Cody added, “I think it’s a good idea to get the women out of here. This place is too isolated for comfort.”

  “I don’t know,” Merissa said after a minute. “I mean, we’ve been here all this time alone and he hasn’t tried anything. He’s bugged the phones, but he didn’t try to hurt us.”

  “That’s true,” Clara said. She sighed. “I just don’t understand what he wants from us.”

  “To torture him, of course,” Rourke said, jerking his head toward Tank. “To make him nervous, unsettle him, keep him off his guard. Maybe keep him from remembering something the enemy doesn’t want remembered.”

  “Enemy.” Cody chuckled. “War term.”

  Rourke shrugged. “I’ve spent my life fighting small wars all over the world, in and out of the military. Force of habit.”

  “Then if he’s just trying to unsettle us, it won’t matter if we stay here,” Merissa said softly. She looked up at Tank worriedly. “I’m sorry, it’s a generous offer, really it is. But I’m uneasy around other people. I just don’t...socialize all that much. And if I’m upset, I can’t work.”

  Tank was disappointed. And worried. “You’d have a room all to yourself.”

  She nodded. “Yes, but you have a big family. They’re very nice,” she added, holding up a hand. “But I’m a solitary person.” She looked very worried. “I’m odd, you know. I don’t fit in with other people.”

  “You fit in with me,” he pointed out and he smiled.

  She smiled back. “Of course. But...”

  “Don’t force her,” Clara said softly. “We’ve both had too much of that in our lives, both physical and verbal.”

  “Okay,” Tank said at once. “I won’t.” He looked at Merissa with a speaking expression. “But I’m going to worry.”

  Merissa smiled. “We’ll be okay.”

  “Yes, they will,” Carson said quietly, returning to the porch. “I’m moving in here.”

  “What?” three voices said in unison.

  Carson glared at the two men. “Rourke can’t stay here and watch you, too,” he told Tank. “Besides, how do you think the rogue agent knew about her husband?” He indicated Clara.

  “He bugged the phones,” Tank said. “But we found all the bugs, right?” he asked Rourke, who’d done the sweep.

  “We were talking about Bill before you found them,” Clara confessed sadly. “Including where he worked. I’m sorry. It was my fault.”

  Tank put an arm around her. “Nothing is your fault,” he said gently. “The man was an animal. The world is better off without him. I’m just sorry about the way it went down.”

  “Me, too,” Clara said. “Shot down like an animal...and just before Christmas.” Her eyes teared up.

  “It will be all right, Mama,” Merissa said, hugging her close. “We all have to face what he did. He was violent and he hurt us. He hurt other people, too. His end was like his life, a mirror of the damage he did.” She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, too. Whatever else he was, he was still my father. But at least we don’t have to live in fear of him anymore.”

  “It’s just, the way he died,” Clara said. She wiped her eyes. “He had a girlfriend, didn’t he? Should we try to find her?”

  Tank and Cody Banks exchanged meaningful looks. There might be clues to the man’s identity in Bill Blake’s circle of friends in California. “That’s not a bad idea,” Tank said.

  Cody nodded.

  “I have a friend who lives in San Diego,” Rourke said. “I’ll get him on it. If you have a contact there in the sheriff’s department,” he told Cody, “that would help. His friends and acquaintances might be able to point us to clues about the rogue agent’s identity.”

  “I agree,” Cody said. “Good thinking. I’ll get on it.”

  A van pulled up in the driveway and a man in jeans and a sweatshirt got out, along with a younger man who stayed in the van. The coroner was tall, with thinning hair and a sad face.

  “The coroner,” Cody introduced. “Mack Hollis.”

  “Hello,” he greeted them. “I understand there was a death?”

  Cody nodded. “My man is standing over the body. I’ll show you where it is.”

  The two men went around the house. The man in the van climbed out and followed closely behind.

  Clara’s face was very pale. “I don’t want to be out here when they bring him around...”

  “He’ll be in a body bag,” Tank said gently. “You won’t have to see him. But we can go inside if you’d rather.”

  “I’d rather,” Clara said gently.

  Carson followed Tank and the two women into the house. The women looked at him with curiosity and a little uneasiness.

  “I’ll be a model houseguest,” Carson told them politely. “I’ll be outside most of the time, observing, setting up a perimeter. I’ll only need a room to sleep in at night.”

  Merissa was nervous. It showed.

  Carson actually smiled. “I haven’t ever hurt a woman.”

  Merissa relaxed a little and managed a smile in return. “Okay.”

  “You can have the guest bedroom,” Clara said gently. “It’s sort of cluttered...”

  “Leave it that way. I don’t mind clutter. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get to work.” He nodded to Tank and Rourke and went back outside.

  “Well,” Rourke told Tank, who was irritated, “he’s got a point. You’re the danger magnet right now. If you stay here, you put them in even more danger.”

  “I know that,” Tank gritted. “That doesn’t mean I like it.”

  Merissa went right up to him. “We’d feel safer with a man here, especially after what just happened,” she said. “It’s okay.”

  He relaxed. He smoothed his big hand over her hair. “I worry.”

  She smiled. Her eyes were soft with affection. “I like that.”

  He chuckled.

  * * *

  CODY CAME BACK into the cabin a few minutes later. The women had made coffee, and Rourke and Tank were sharing a pot with them.

  “Coffee?” Merissa asked the sheriff.

  “Sorry, no time,” he replied. “We’ve got him loaded up and our investigator is out there doing the walkaround with a crime scene technician. It will take a little time to complete, but they won’t bother you,” he told the women. “The investigator will need to speak with you. And I’ll need a report. If I give yo
u the forms, can you fill them out and have them dropped by my office?”

  “Certainly,” Clara said for both of them. She teared up again. “He was a bad man. But when we first married, he was so gentle and kind...” She shook her head. “I never understood what changed him.”

  “Life happens,” Cody said quietly. “I am sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you,” Merissa said.

  Cody looked at Tank. “What time is supper?”

  Tank chuckled. “Six sharp. You don’t have to dress. We’re informal.”

  Cody grinned. “Okay. See you then.”

  Tank and Rourke stayed until the investigator was finished and the women had given their information to him. The crime scene technicians packed up and left with him, with trace evidence, photographic evidence and measurements intact.

  “I’ll get home,” Tank said. “I hate to leave you, both of you, here.” He sighed. “But Carson’s right. I don’t want to make you a target. It’s me he’s after.”

  Merissa hugged him. “Thanks for caring.”

  “Silly woman,” he teased. He bent and kissed her gently, in front of them all. “I have to take care of my girl.”

  She beamed. “Don’t go out alone.”

  He grinned. “Never.” He glanced at Rourke. “He wouldn’t let me.”

  “Dead right,” Rourke replied. “And don’t be afraid of Carson,” he added gently. “He’s not what he seems. He’s a good man. He’ll take care of you.”

  “He’s very...” Clara searched for words.

  “Yes.” Rourke laughed. “He’s very everything. But he’ll never let you down.”

  “Okay,” Merissa said.

  “I’ll call you later,” Tank told Merissa. He kissed her again and he and Rourke left the cabin.

  On the way home, he stopped by a local jewelry store. Christmas was almost on them, and he meant to get her something very special indeed. She liked rubies. He smiled as he picked out a set of rings.