“Why, Jack?” she asked, her voice almost breaking.
He made no answer, still staring at her.
“Tell me why! Why did you lie to me?”
The irony wasn’t lost on Maddy that she was saying the exact same things, asking the same questions of Jack, that she had when they’d last been on the bridge together.
“I didn’t lie,” he said, giving her the same answer as before.
Once again, Maddy found herself rushing toward Jack, tears filling her eyes while anger burned in her heart. She stomped across the bridge until she was standing before him, looking up into his eyes. Her instincts told her to slap him, just as she’d done twice before, but this time she simply couldn’t. For his part, Jack looked as if he expected it to happen, but he didn’t flinch or turn away.
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” she asked, her voice pleading. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were a lawman?”
“I couldn’t,” he answered simply.
“That’s not good enough!” Maddy snapped. “There was no reason not to!”
“Yes, there was.” Jack took a deep breath; it was clear that he was carefully weighing what he should tell her. “I’m an agent working undercover,” he explained. “That means that no matter where I am, who I’m with, or what I’m doing, I’m always in danger. Whenever an agent forgets that and allows his secret to slip, that’s when he ends up getting himself killed.”
“And telling me would have put you at risk?”
“It could have.”
The bluntness with which Jack answered her question made her momentarily uneasy; she could see that he believed the truth of what he’d said. Maddy couldn’t imagine what that must be like, constantly worrying that his real identity might be discovered, always in danger. It frightened her.
“Why would you do that to yourself?” she asked, unable to come up with an answer on her own. “Why would you live your life that way?”
“Because it’s my job,” Jack answered, stepping away from her, walking over to the bridge’s edge, and looking down into the river. Leaning against the railing, he ran a hand through his dark hair. “I’ve been working for the Bureau for four years now, and in that time I’ve learned that there are all kinds of bad people lurking in the shadows. By putting myself at risk, I take a chance that I can do my part to put them where they belong, behind bars.”
“And that’s why you’re here…? To put someone in jail…?”
“The reason I’m here…is complicated…”
Again, Maddy rushed to Jack’s side, grabbing him by the arm and turning him to face her; for his part, he didn’t look away, but his eyes wore a pained expression far deeper than the bruises encircling one of them.
“Don’t avoid me,” she said determinedly.
Jack stared silently.
“You’re here because of the speakeasy, aren’t you?” Maddy asked, voicing the suspicion that’d been troubling her from the moment she’d seen his badge.
Slowly, he nodded.
“But why this one? Why here of all places?” she prodded. “I might live in some backwater town in Montana, but I know enough about Prohibition to guess that there’re thousands of speakeasies around the country, tens of thousands, so why would a government agency care about the one in Colton?”
Again, Jack didn’t answer, at least not directly. “I came here because my lieutenant told me to, because this was once my home.”
“Then what about the man who came here with you, Hooper, the one Dr. Quayle saved…?” Maddy asked, trying to piece it all together.
“He’s an agent, too.”
“Is he your partner?”
Jack sighed. “I suppose so, but really he’s nothing but a big pain in the ass who isn’t very good at his job. I hate to say it, but having his appendix burst was a blessing, in a way.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“It is,” he admitted. “I’m glad he didn’t die, but I’m just as happy that he’s not running around underfoot, making my job harder.”
“What job?” Maddy asked again, desperate for an answer.
Jack looked over toward the horizon; the sun had melted down into the tops of the trees, but the light still played across his face, making his eyes sparkle like jewels. “Before I left Seattle,” he said, “I was given a cover story I was supposed to stick to. Ross and I were to present ourselves as buyers for a rich businessman who was looking to buy up land around town.”
“The story you gave to Jeffers…”
“Exactly,” he answered.
“So everything you told people was a lie?”
“One that I never told to you,” Jack said, staring hard into her eyes. “As a matter of fact, I went so far as to tell you that it was a lie.”
Maddy faltered; he’d admitted as much to her behind the mercantile.
“I swore to myself that, no matter what, I wouldn’t lie to you,” he continued, gently taking her hand in his own; the warmth of his touch sent a shiver racing through her heart. “It’s one thing to try to put something over on a man like Jeffers. To people like him, lying is as natural as taking a breath. When I’m undercover, I have to act like them, lie like them, be like them, but that couldn’t be any further from the man I really am.”
“And who’s that?” she asked softly.
He moved a half step closer, his eyes searching her face. “I’m not that different from the boy you loved.”
Maddy’s heart thundered. In that moment, all she wanted was to take his answers without question, to melt into his arms and feel his tender kisses fall hungrily upon her lips. It would be so easy.
And that was why she let go of his hand and turned away.
Not until I have all of the answers…
“Why are you here in Colton, Jack?” she said with steel in her voice.
For a long moment, he was so silent that Maddy thought he was going to try to avoid the question yet again, but then he finally spoke. “I’m here because the Bureau of Prohibition got a report that there was an illegal liquor operation somewhere in town. Normally, you’d be right, the government doesn’t have the time or manpower to chase down every speakeasy, but the information on this particular place was different. Rumor was that it was being smuggled in from across the Canadian border. Ross and I were sent here to find out if it was true.” He paused for a moment before adding, “It didn’t take long to discover that it was.”
Maddy’s voice felt faint, far away, to her own ears. “So what happens next?”
“As a federal agent acting on behalf of the United States government, I’m supposed to arrest everyone connected to the operation,” Jack answered, the inevitability of the next words hanging in the air, “including you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
EVER SINCE THE DAY Jeffers Grimm had darkened the doorway of the mercantile, slapping a pile of money down on the counter and proposing that they open a speakeasy in the cellar, Maddy had known she was on borrowed time. Even after it had become easier to pay the rapidly multiplying bills and care for her father’s illness, she’d remained worried about the fact that they were breaking the law, that they would be caught. Initially, she’d thought it was going to happen the night Sheriff Utley had sauntered down the steps, but somehow, luck had shone on them. Still, she’d worried. Her father had always told her, if you play with matches, you’re going to get burned.
I just never would have suspected that the man I love would be the one wielding the flame.
Jack may have fallen silent, but his words echoed again and again in Maddy’s thoughts. Faster than she could’ve snapped her fingers, whatever hopes and dreams she’d rekindled about spending the rest of her life with him were dashed, gone up in smoke. She’d be the biggest laughingstock in the state of Montana once word got out.
“I’m…I’m going to go…to jail…?”
Jack slowly crossed the bridge to stand just behind her. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he gently turned her ar
ound and looked down at her, his eyes searching her face. Even with everything that had just happened, with the declaration that he was going to put her behind bars, Maddy couldn’t keep herself from reaching up and tenderly placing her fingers against his bruised cheek; instead of flinching in pain, he leaned into her palm, sending conflicting shivers of fear and pleasure racing throughout her.
“You’re going to arrest me, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice faint.
“No, I’m not,” he whispered in answer.
Maddy went weak in the knees. At first, she wondered if she hadn’t misheard him, but from the way he looked at her, with a smile slowly spreading on his face, she knew she’d understood perfectly. Unbidden tears filled her eyes. For a moment her mouth opened and closed without sound. Eventually, she said, “But you just told me that—”
“I told you what, as a federally deputized lawman, I’m supposed to do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.”
“But why not?” Maddy asked in confusion. “I’m involved with the speakeasy just the same as Jeffers and Sumner. It’s set up in the basement of my family’s business with my permission. Worse than that, I’ve sold drinks to practically the whole town!”
Jack’s smile faded slightly. “Where did Jeffers tell you he was getting the alcohol?” he asked.
Maddy thought back to the days before the speakeasy first opened. “He told me that he knew someone who could get us a couple of bottles of what we needed, enough so that we could make some money.”
“A couple of bottles…,” Jack echoed. “Yesterday, Clayton and I followed Jeffers and Sumner up into the hills along the border and watched as they loaded up a truck with so many crates and boxes of liquor that the springs groaned.”
“What?” Maddy blurted, stunned.
“They were met by another truck crossing over from Canada. I can’t say for certain, but from the look of the men driving it, they’re connected to the Mob. Regardless, they were up to no good.”
Maddy’s head swam faster than the river’s current. Her heart was in her throat. From the moment she’d agreed to Jeffers’s plan she knew that she was making a deal with the devil, but she never would have imagined, wouldn’t have dreamed, that this was what he’d do. He’d used her, plain and simple. She remembered the warning he’d given her in the cellar, that if one of them were caught it would mean both their heads, but he hadn’t been particularly truthful; while both of them were taking plenty of risk, he was getting much more of the reward. Still, she understood why he’d lied; there was no way she would’ve agreed to such a thing.
While Jeffers’s bootlegging scheme meant plenty of trouble for her, Maddy suddenly realized that it had made problems for Jack, as well.
“This is why Sumner attacked you, isn’t it?”
Jack nodded grimly. “He saw me watching them,” he explained. “I got careless, and even though he didn’t get a good look at me, it was enough for him to pull out his pistol and start firing blind into the woods. Clayton and I ran off and hid when he and Jeffers came looking for us, but Sumner’s as paranoid as they come. He was convinced. I thought that my coming to the speakeasy would give him a reason to doubt himself, but all I managed to do was set him off.”
“He had a gun?” Maddy said, her mouth going dry.
Gently, Jack put his hands on her arms, steadying her. “When Jeffers Grimm was born, he was already as dangerous as a wounded bear,” he said. “If my suspicion is right, if he’s working for some mobster and running booze out of Canada, then that means he has a lot to lose if he gets caught. There’s nothing he won’t stoop to, and no one he won’t destroy to protect his stake.”
“How would he get involved with all of that?”
“Trouble finds men like Jeffers as easily as flies find rotting fish. Everything he’s done so far has to be at someone else’s request. He just isn’t smart or connected enough to have come up with it on his own. This wasn’t the first shipment he’s stored. More than likely, it’s one of the last. Once he’s gathered everything he’s been told to get, someone will come for it, he’ll get whatever payment he’s been promised, and the law will be left in tatters.”
“But if Jeffers has brought back more than one load of alcohol, where is he hiding—,” Maddy started to ask, but then stopped without finishing; she already knew the answer.
“It’s all in the mercantile’s storeroom,” Jack said. “I didn’t know for certain until after Jeffers hit me and I fell to the floor.”
Maddy had seen it, too, looking past the storeroom’s open door at all the crates and barrels.
“I’m such a fool,” she chided herself.
“He took advantage of you.”
“I should’ve known what he was doing,” Maddy insisted.
“How could you?” Jack asked. “He used your need to take care of your father against you. You couldn’t have known that he was lying to your face, manipulating you for his own gain.”
All at once, Maddy realized the enormity of what she’d done. In trying to protect those she loved, she’d put everything she cherished in jeopardy. No longer able to control her emotions, she plunged tearfully into Jack’s arms and buried her face in his chest. He ran his hand through her long red hair, doing what he could to calm her.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he soothed.
“I was a fool,” she disagreed. “I should go to jail right along with him.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“I’m guilty! I broke the law!”
“Not willingly.”
“But it’s your job to arrest me. Why wouldn’t you do it?”
“Because I love you.”
Slowly, Jack leaned down and placed his lips against hers. All her worries of what lay ahead immediately fell away, replaced by a fierce longing to cherish the present, together, standing beneath a rapidly darkening sky on their special bridge. The passion of their kiss increased with every second, the gentleness of the first touch becoming a fevered longing as Maddy lost herself, her mouth opening to allow him to taste her tongue, to feel her desire; in all of their years together, she wondered if they’d ever kissed so intensely.
“And I love you,” she said, never meaning it more.
When Jack took her by the hand and led them from the bridge and back toward town, Maddy knew, without any doubt, what he wanted to happen between them, and she went willingly.
Maddy was still holding Jack’s hand when they hurried up the stairs of the Belvedere and into the small lobby. Outside, the sky had steadily darkened toward night, the sky brilliant, with thousands of more stars growing visible each passing second. The warm summer day cooled with the setting sun. Lights burned in open windows, but it was still several hours before she was expected to open the speakeasy, which she had no intention of doing. In that moment, being by Jack’s side was the only thing that mattered.
The whole walk from the bridge, Maddy had been embarrassed to pass anyone on the street, on the one hand because she and Jack were still the talk of the town, but also because she was convinced that their barely contained passion must be obvious to anyone who saw them. For that reason, she was thankful that Virginia Benoit wasn’t behind the front desk; the hotel’s owner was too perceptive, to prone to gossip.
Jack led the way past the desk and down the short hallway before stopping in front of his room. He paused for a moment, looking at the door across the hall, his head turned as if he was listening; Maddy heard nothing; she wondered if it wasn’t the room in which his Bureau partner was staying. Finally satisfied, Jack opened the door, and she followed him inside.
The room was dark, with only a sliver of faint light falling through the crack that split the curtains. Only hours before, Maddy had fled from this room, feeling that she’d been lied to, manipulated by Jack’s withholding of his true identity. Unable to help herself, she glanced over at the dresser, remembering the feel of the gun in her hand. Where before it had unsettled her, she was surprised to realize that now that Ja
ck no longer had any secrets from her, now that she’d been told the truth, she felt safer that he had a pistol, especially because of what Jeffers and Sumner were up to.
“I can put it somewhere else,” Jack said, following her eyes.
Maddy shook her head.
“I don’t want it to upset you.”
“I’m not,” she replied. “It doesn’t matter anymore. The only thing that matters to me now is you.”
Breathless, Maddy was enveloped by Jack’s embrace as he pulled her close. His mouth found hers hungrily as one hand slid up the side of her cheek, brushing past her ear and then finally nestling in her thick hair.
“Maddy…,” he breathed between kisses.
His passion ignited her own. Her kisses grew steadily stronger as she caressed his muscular arm, his shoulder, and the length of his back, stopping at his waist. Excited by the strength of her desire, she tugged his shirt free of his pants, only to be surprised when he stopped their kiss and stepped back.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“No,” he said with a soft smile, “but I want you to be sure this is what you want. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
Maddy looked right into his eyes, her gaze never wavering. “I’m no longer the girl I was when you left, naïve about the ways of the world. When you took my hand on the bridge, I knew that this was where we were going.”
“I just don’t want you to—”
“Stop,” she said, quieting him. “All I want is to make love to you.”
Jack didn’t say a word in reply, but Maddy could see a flare of desire erupt in his eyes. Telling him what she wanted, actually saying the words out loud, had removed the last barrier between them. It made her feel free to have been so honest, so forthcoming. It was what she wanted, to finally give herself to this man after so many years apart, so much time spent wondering why he’d left.
By Starlight Page 24