She had her game face on.
She turned to him then, a smile on her lips. “We made it,” she said, her voice not altogether steady.
He nodded, following her lead. “We did.” He paused. “How much longer until you’re home?” he asked. “Two weeks.”
“Would you mind if I called you sometime?” he asked, to his immense surprise. He’d planned a clean break, but he couldn’t seem to make it. Couldn’t summon the words that would separate her permanently from him again.
From the slightly astonished look on her face, he wasn’t the only one surprised by his question. “Of course, not,” she said. “You’ve got my number.”
“And you’ve got mine.”
She blinked. “I do?”
“Yes,” he said. “I programmed it into your phone.”
A slow smile slid over her lips. “Oh. Thank you.”
Tanner hesitated, searched for the right words, the ones that would make her understand. “Look, Mia. I’m a mess right now, but I’m hoping that isn’t always going to be the case. I—”
“I don’t expect anything from you, Tanner,” she interjected. “You and I…we’re good. We’re okay, you know? Call me,” she told him. “Keep in touch this time. And if you ever need me, I can be there in…what? Four hours?” She smiled as if it didn’t signify. “That’s nothing, right?”
He chuckled softly. “Not after this trip, no,” he said. He bent forward and kissed her, softly, lingeringly. “You’re a special girl, Bossy.”
She released an unsteady breath and smiled against his lips. “Let’s go, Idiot.”
He chuckled, grabbed the backpack, then walked around and opened Mia’s door. He’d just gotten her suitcase out of the SUV when he heard a woman scream and a baby cry.
His stomach dropped. Sweat broke out over his shoulders and his hands started to shake.
Then he saw her, a woman at the foot of the back steps, a baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms. She appeared to have fallen down the stairs and the baby was wedged between herself and the pavement. Oh, God.
He didn’t think twice, never considered not helping. “Hold on,” he told Mia, then darted forward to try and assist the woman. She was still screaming when he reached her and he dropped to his knees. He could help this one, Tanner thought. He could save this child. It would be all right. He wouldn’t fail this time.
Then the woman looked up, tossed the baby out of the way, and aimed a gun at him.
Too late, he realized his mistake. God only knew what this one would cost him. The cry wasn’t authentic and the blanket should have been a dead giveaway. Who wrapped their baby in a blanket in Texas in August?
He deserved to be shot for his own stupidity.
Someone, most definitely Ramirez, had done their homework.
“No!” Mia screamed. “Tanner!”
“Get up,” the woman said under her breath. Despite the wig and heavy makeup, Tanner now recognized her. Ackerman’s assistant—Alma Threadgill. Closer inspection revealed something else, too. He recognized her from a photo he’d looked at only yesterday, one that Payne had sent him of the women who’d come to visit Mia’s father. She’d had very blond hair, cut short, and had changed her makeup, but it was definitely her. She’d used the name Marie Upton then. Who knew which was her real name? His lips twisted as he stared at the doll.
“It’s a Cry Baby,” she said. “Brilliant, eh? The perfect touch.”
“Where’s Ackerman?” Tanner asked her, trying to buy some time. He sized up Alma. He knew without a doubt she would shoot him if he gave her a reason, and so he shifted to the left, putting himself firmly in front of Mia.
“He’s inside,” she sneered. “Fool. He’s fought me every step of the way, but we see who’s won, don’t we? Now hand me the backpack.”
Did she really believe it was going to be that simple? Tanner wondered. He laughed softly, trying to decide the best way to unarm her. “Er…no.”
Her face went comically blank. “What? What do you mean no?”
“Tanner, give her the damned backpack!” Mia shouted, seemingly equally terrified and exasperated. “The damned thing isn’t worth dying over.”
He was the one who was looking down the barrel of a gun, and she was still giving orders. Didn’t she trust him at all? Didn’t she know he’d been a Ranger, for God’s sake? Tanner rubbed the bridge of his nose and summoned patience. “Babe, could you butt out? I’m not planning on dying. Not today, anyway.”
Alma narrowed her eyes. “Just because you’re not planning on it doesn’t mean it can’t be arranged.”
“Who sent you?” Tanner asked her, shifting again to put himself between Alma and Mia, who damn her hide, had moved closer. What the hell was she doing?
Alma laughed derisively. “Like I’m going to tell you.”
“You said you fooled Ackerman. That couldn’t have been easy, pulling the wool over that wily old reporter’s eyes. It was you who planted the GPS, wasn’t it?” No doubt she got it from Charlie, but he couldn’t risk the reaction from Mia, Tanner thought. Not this far into the game.
Predictably, playing to her vanity won. Nothing tripped up a criminal faster than their own perceived self-importance and Alma was no exception. She thought she’d been brilliant and was eager to share her own superiority.
“Of course, it was. I told him about it afterward and he was appalled, couldn’t believe I’d been so sneaky. As if he’s not sneaky. But I needed a cover and he was a good one. He’s lonely.” She shrugged. “It made him an easy mark.”
“Why’s he been so eager to investigate Moe Dick?”
“Who?”
“The statue,” he clarified.
“He’s convinced that your girl here—” she jerked her head toward Mia “—has planted the rumors about the statue’s powers herself, to generate more buzz for the exhibit.”
“What?” Mia shrieked. “That’s outrageous! I would never do such a dirty, underhanded thing!”
Alma looked past him to Mia. “That’s exactly what your father said.”
He heard Mia swear. “That bastard,” she muttered.
Alma’s gaze suddenly turned hard. “You hurt his feelings, you know. Refusing his phone calls. Like you’re better than he is,” she sneered.
Alma turned to glare at Tanner. “I’ve said too much. Give me the backpack or I’m going to shoot you.”
He fully believed she would. If he made a grab for the gun, who knew where the shot would land? And her grip seemed surprising steady. She knew how to handle the weapon. He wasn’t dealing with a novice here. That made things more delicate, but not impossible.
“You know how Texas is with the death penalty,” Tanner continued, as though they were talking about the weather and not his life. “I know lethal injection is supposed to be a kinder, gentler form of capital punishment, but since the meds are dosed with a paralytic, it could actually be quite painful for you and no one would ever know. Since you wouldn’t be able to scream.” She paled.
“Where’s Charlie?” Tanner asked, edging closer to her. “He sent you alone to do his dirty work, did he?”
“He trusts me,” she said, but he knew he’d struck a nerve by the tightening around her mouth. “And this isn’t dirty work. This work is going to set us up for life. We’re going to drink margaritas and lay on a Mexican beach, watch the waves roll in and out and never worry about money again.”
“Ramirez is paying you that much, is he?”
“Whose Ramirez?” she quipped, clearly lying.
“Is that what you’re supposed to say when they arrest you?”
“I’m not going to get arrested.”
“What about Charlie?” he asked, firing the question at her before she could think. He moved closer still. Almost there… “You supposed to ‘forget’ his name, too? I hope you’re getting well-paid for this, Alma, since you’re the one who’s taking all the risk here.”
She frowned, seemingly agitated. “Just shut up and give me the backpack.”
“He’s not worth it,” Mia told her. Her voice was closer, dammit. She’d moved. Why the hell didn’t she stay behind the car door? “Trust me on this, Alma. I know.”
The woman’s fevered gaze swung to Mia once more. “You don’t know anything!” she said bitterly. “All you had to do was talk to him. But you wouldn’t because your whore of a mother poisoned your mind against him. That’s what he said.”
“My mother was not a whore,” Mia said through her clenched jaw.
“Yes, she was and you are, too. You’re a whore just like her. And you hurt his feelings,” she repeated in a strange voice, one that made the hair on the back of Tanner’s neck rise. Alma’s gaze darted between the two of them, then she smiled a terrible sort of smile, darted to the side and fired a shot at Mia. Mia screamed.
Having read her body language and moved an instant before she got the round off, Tanner took the hit in the shoulder and staggered to his knees, struck numb with pain. “Tanner!”
Alma jerked the backpack from his shoulder and took off. Tanner was on his feet in an instant and hurried after her, Mia right behind him. Something red whizzed past his head and tagged Alma in the back. Mia’s shoe.
Alma screamed as though she’d been shot and fell forward.
Tanner recovered the backpack and bent at the waist, trying to catch his breath. His shoulder burned as though he’d had a hot poker shoved into it and he could feel the blood getting sticky beneath his shirt. He quickly dialed 911 on his cell phone while he still could.
Mia caught up with him, her eyes wild with fear. “Oh, Tanner. Sit down, please. The police will be here in a minute.”
“No,” he said. “Let’s get this inside.” He had a job to do, dammit, and had taken a bullet for it.
He would complete his mission.
“What about her?” Mia asked. Alma still writhed on the ground, still laboring under the deluded impression that she’d been shot. No doubt the pointy heel of Mia’s shoe had felt like a bullet when it had nailed her in the back.
“I’m dying,” Alma gasped. “Oh, God, you’ve gone and crippled me. I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel my legs!”
Mia kicked her in the thigh, eliciting another cry of pain from the prostrate woman. “You felt that, didn’t you, you stupid cow. Tell my father to rot in hell.”
Mia held up her shoe and showed it to Tanner. “I told you they were practical. Idiot,” she chided, glaring at him. “I can’t believe you let that psychotic bitch shoot you.”
“Better me than you,” he said, shadows closing in on his vision.
The cops arrived and took Alma into custody. Mia wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him forward. He handed Moe Dick over to Ed once they got inside and, smiling, he lost consciousness.
“TANNER CRAWFORD,” THE surgeon announced from the door. Mia popped up and hurried forward.
“I’m here for Tanner,” she said.
“He came through with flying colors. It missed the bone, so no messy fragments to contend with. We extracted the bullet. He’s going to need a bit of therapy, but otherwise we anticipate a full recovery.”
Mia wilted with relief. “Good,” she said, nodding. “Can I see him?”
“He’ll be in recovery another hour, then we’ll move him to a room. You can see him then.”
Mia murmured her thanks and neglected to tell the good doctor that they’d have a hell of a time convincing Tanner to stay in the hospital overnight. They’d be lucky if he didn’t check himself out the instant he regained consciousness. She was given the room number and told to wait there.
She did, quite miserably, until they rolled Tanner in sixty-nine minutes later.
“Don’t make a fuss,” he murmured thickly. “I’m fine.”
She smoothed her trembling fingers over his forehead. “I know you’re fine, fool. Who’s being bossy now, eh?”
He laughed weakly.
“Do you need anything? Are you thirsty?”
“Ice chips,” he said. “Can’t have anything to drink yet.”
Mia slipped a piece of ice from a nearby cup into his mouth. “Did they get Ramirez?” he asked.
“They did.” She’d had a phone call from Ed while she waited for Tanner to come out of surgery. “And my father,” she added, still angry over his part in this.
The only favor the man had actually ever done her was in leaving—he’d just been another mouth to feed when he’d lived with them—and she’d thought she was finished with him. He’d never cared about her, or her mother for that matter, but had always had an eye to the things he’d wanted. Unfortunately, he’d never wanted to pay for them.
Whether Ramirez had contacted her father or her father had contacted Ramirez was never truly clear, but the pair of them were definitely working together. Mia’s connection to the exhibit had been an opportunity her father couldn’t resist. Charlie had paired Alma up with Ackerman to be his eyes and ears on the scene because he’d known Mia would have had him kicked out of the exhibit if she’d seen him. Between Ramirez’s cash and her father’s charm, finding Mia and following her had been easy. Ackerman had merely been a pawn.
The wily old reporter had already been around to check on Tanner and had apologized to Mia for first suspecting her of any wrongdoing and second, for any unwitting part he’d played in what had happened. The man had always been brash and abrasive. Seeing him cowed had been quite upsetting. She’d offered him an exclusive interview regarding Moe and promised to give him the full scoop on everything. It was possible that this could end up being the story that was going to make his career after all.
She relayed all of this to Tanner, who alternated between extreme periods of alertness to drooping lids brought on by the medication. She had one more thing to tell him and hoped like hell he wouldn’t be angry with her.
“I alerted Brian Payne at Ranger Security,” she said.
Tanner’s eyes widened. “Mia,” he said, her name an accusation.
“Don’t be mad,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. She loved his hands, so masculine, so competent, so wonderful against her skin. “They needed to know.” She winced. “And I also called your mother.”
He swore hotly, a word she hadn’t ever heard him use. “You didn’t,” he said fully alert now. “You couldn’t have done that to me. She’ll hover. She’ll fret.” He said those things as if they were torture devices. “I’ll hate it.”
Mia straightened and glared at him. “Too damned bad,” she said. “Be glad you’ve still got a mother who will hover and fret over you. You were shot, Tanner,” she told him, as though explaining this to a two-year-old. “You can’t get shot and not tell your mother.” She threaded her fingers through his. “She’s on her way and will be flying home with you.”
Tanner studied her for a moment, his gaze searching hers. For what, who knew? But she could feel the change all the same. “I could cheerfully throttle you.”
She sighed, then smiled. “But you won’t, because you know I’m right.”
“Since you’ve managed everything else, I’m assuming that you’ve talked to my surgeon. When am I getting out of here?”
“Tomorrow afternoon, provided you don’t develop a fever.”
“I won’t,” he said.
Mia merely laughed.
His gaze slid over her again, lingering on her mouth. “When do you have to be back?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not leaving until your mother gets here.” And she wasn’t. She couldn’t leave him alone. She didn’t know how all of this was ultimately going to affect him. Hearing Alma scream, the fake baby cry. All that was missing was a damned bomb. Damned Ramirez. He’d certainly done his homework, had known exactly what buttons to push. She’d watched every bit of the color leech out of Tanner’s face when he’d seen the stage Alma had set. And to top it off, he’d been shot. Because he’d been protecting her. She’d been Alma’s target and Tanner had put himself between her and a bullet.
And his father had the audacity to say this man was a coward. Bullshit. He was a hero—her hero—and he’d forever own her heart.
She’d literally felt her heart stop when she’d seen him leap in front of that gun. She’d thought he was dead, that Alma had killed him…and she’d been powerless to stop it.
It was the single most horrible moment in her life and it was nothing—nothing—compared to what he’d witnessed. It sort of put things into perspective for her.
Tanner squeezed her hand. “Mia, you don’t have to stay. You’ll need your rest. The exhibit opens to morrow.”
“And I’ll be there,” she said. “But for now, I’m here with you. Budge up, would you?” she said, crawling into bed with him. She rested her head against his good shoulder. “You scared the hell out of me, you know that? No more jumping in front of bullets meant for other people,” she told him. “Even me. My nerves can’t handle it.”
He laughed sleepily. “I couldn’t let her hurt you. You’re my Bossy.” She swallowed hard, dashed a tear off her cheek.
And then his breathing leveled off and he slept. When his mother arrived at seven, he was still asleep.
The bad news? She was leaving him again.
The good news? No nightmares.
Extracting a promise from his mother to let her know how Tanner was doing, Mia pressed a kiss to his temple, breathed him in for a moment, and left.
Strangely, it was even harder this time.
14
Two weeks later…
LEAVING ENOUGH HOMEMADE FOOD in the fridge to last him for the rest of the year, Tanner’s mother kissed him on the cheek and abruptly took her leave. She’d been with him for the past two weeks, from the flight home right up until now, when she’d suddenly announced that it was time for her to go back to Aunt Margaret’s. She had to pick flooring and look at paint swatches for the new house. She had places to go, people to see, things to do.
Interestingly, he’d been asking her when she planned to go home almost every day since they’d gotten back from Dallas and every day he’d gotten the same vague answer, even as early as this morning. She’d taken a call, presumably from his sister, a couple of hours ago and had made quick work of putting the finishing touches on the chicken casserole she’d left on the stove to cool. Then she packed her bag for her immediate departure.
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