by Diana Palmer
“I’ll never forgive her,” she said. “Never!”
“Never is a long time. We have to get moving.”
“You’re still not recovered,” she sobbed. “And the wedding...!”
“We’ll take everything with us to Wyoming,” he said softly. “I’m absolutely certain they have ministers up there.” He pursed his lips. “And we’d better find one quick, because there’s no way I’d get past Grayson without a marriage license.”
“How do you know so much about her?” she asked.
He kissed her tenderly. “I have spies. Never you mind, jealous heart, the only woman I’ve ever wanted enough to marry is you. Period.”
Because he wanted her? Not because he loved her? She wasn’t sure. But she didn’t have the strength to walk away from him. She loved him far too much, now more than ever, with his baby growing inside her body.
* * *
THEY FLEW TO Wyoming on a private jet.
“I have a property nearby, you know,” he reminded her.
“Yes, you went there and stayed for a long time,” she recalled.
His hand tightened on hers. “Running away from the memories,” he said. “I couldn’t run far enough. And then I took you out to the ballet that we never attended.” His face darkened, and he averted his eyes. “I wish we could go back and redo that night,” he said quietly.
“I don’t,” she whispered, snuggling close. “That’s when we made the baby.”
His body shivered. He drew her close, his face buried in her warm throat. “Yes, but still...”
“You made it up to me last night. You made up everything last night,” she whispered in his ear, shivering. “It was...indescribable.”
“For me, too, Sara,” he replied. He kissed her closed eyelids. “For me, too.”
* * *
THEY HIRED A limousine in Sheridan to take them out to the ranch, but they stopped along the way at a small Methodist church.
Wolf tugged her along with him. “You won’t have a proper dress,” he said. “Or the rings, just yet. They’re en route. But I have the papers we need, if you’ll marry me, right now.”
“I’d marry you in blue jeans, if that was the only way,” she said with breathless delight.
He smiled. “The Reverend Bailey is a friend of Jake Blair, the minister whose church you visited in Jacobsville. He’s a friend of mine. So he called the Reverend Bailey and explained things. We’re expected.”
They walked into the church. The altar had flowers. The reverend greeted them holding out a gray jeweler’s box.
“Isn’t it amazing what you can find just when you need it?” Wolf murmured, winking at the minister, who’d gone shopping for him. He opened the box. There were two gold rings inside, wide bands. One for her, one for him. “Yellow gold. I noticed that it’s all you wear.”
“I love it.” She touched the rings and looked up at him. “I could wear a cigar band, though. It would be enough.”
He bent and kissed her eyelids shut with such tenderness that one of the women standing at the altar had to dash away a tear.
“My wife and mother are going to be witnesses for us,” the Reverend Bailey said. “If you’re ready?”
Wolf looked down at her. “I’ve never been so ready in my life.”
“Me, either,” Sara said softly.
“Then let us begin.”
* * *
IT WAS A brief ceremony, poignant for all that. Wolf slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. She slid one onto his, which also fit. They repeated the words of the marriage ceremony, looking into each other’s eyes. The minister pronounced them man and wife.
Sara cried silently as he bent to kiss her with aching tenderness.
“Mrs. Patterson,” he whispered, and he smiled.
She smiled back.
He kissed away the tears while the minister filled out the marriage license.
“And now,” he said after they’d shaken hands and been congratulated, and he’d made sure the minister had a nice memento of his kindness in the form of several large bills for the indigent fund, “we go home. And if we’re lucky, after we display the license, Grayson will allow you to sleep with me,” he added as they piled into the limousine.
He laughed as he said it. She laughed, too, pressing close.
“Sadly,” he said heavily, “sleep is all it’s going to be for the immediate future.” He leaned close. “I’m still sore.”
She burst out laughing and tried not to blush.
Grayson met them at the door. She was all smiles. “I made a cake!” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever tried to make one. It may not be very good. But I made quiche and croissants, and they came out perfectly!”
Wolf stared at her. “You feeling okay, Grayson?” he asked.
She glared at him. “I can cook.”
He pursed his lips. “Snake, yes. I’m not sure about croissants and...”
“You just come in here and taste it before you start making snide remarks,” she scoffed. She smiled at Sara. “How are you?”
“Sad,” she said. “My ward sold Gabriel out.”
“I heard. It’s on the news, everywhere,” she said. “They’ll probably try to come here,” she added with a worried look at Wolf.
“All taken care of,” he replied. “I called in markers from every law-enforcement agency I know. Even the U.S. Forest Service. Since this ranch borders their land, we have a few, shall we say, perks.”
“Which are?” Sara asked.
“Wait and see.” He grinned at her. He pulled her close and kissed her pretty cheek.
“Okay, now,” Grayson began.
Wolf handed her the marriage license.
She stared at it, at him, at Sara, with disbelief in her brown eyes.
“I can get married like anybody else,” he said defensively.
She felt her forehead. “Maybe I’m hallucinating.”
“No, that would mean that you got married,” he returned. “And hell would also be freezing over at the same time.”
“Do you two know each other?” Sara asked with veiled suspicion.
“Sort of,” they both said in unison and then grimaced together.
Wolf looked at Grayson and threw up his hands. “Damn. You can’t keep secrets from her. Okay. It was Eb’s idea. Grayson is one of his.”
Sara’s expression was just short of comical. “You’re a...a merc?”
Grayson shifted uncomfortably. “I’m a professional soldier,” she muttered.
“You’re a merc,” Wolf muttered.
Grayson sighed. “I’m a merc,” she agreed.
“But why, how...?”
“We were afraid Ysera might know about you,” Amelia said gently. “None of us wanted to see you hurt, but it wasn’t possible to put somebody in the apartment with you unless it was a companion. And we saw your advertisement. Everything fell into place perfectly.”
“My brother must have done that,” Sara said. “He knew!”
“Yes. It was when he came home for Michelle’s graduation,” Amelia reminded her.
Sara didn’t reply. She looked up at Wolf.
“I’d hurt you so badly,” he said, wincing. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you. Neither could your brother. So he persuaded you to place the ad and had Grayson answer it.”
She let out a sigh. “Well, at least I feel safer now.” She glanced at Grayson and then winced. She looked up at Wolf. “Who’s going to tell her?”
“You’re a woman. So is she.” Wolf looked uncomfortable.
“Yes, but you’ve known her longer than I have.”
“Tell me what?” Amelia asked.
“It’s not something I feel I should do,” Wolf said.
“You’re making such heavy weather of it...”
“Tell me what?” Amelia asked again, impatiently.
“If you’d just do it,” Sara groaned.
“I don’t want to do it,” he groaned, too.
“Tell me what, damn it!” Amelia burst out.
“I’m pregnant,” Sara blurted out at the same time Wolf said, “She’s pregnant.”
Amelia gaped at them.
Wolf produced the marriage license and waved it at her.
She drew in a breath. She looked at Sara, whose eyes were clouding. “Oh, come here,” she said, hugging the younger woman close. “I’m not judgmental. I go to church, but I don’t tell people how to live. And if you got pregnant before you got married, it’s all his fault, anyway.”
“What?” he burst out.
Amelia glared at him over Sara’s shoulder. “I know all about men,” she muttered. “I used to work with men. Tough men who didn’t want commitment. They talked about the women they lied to...”
“It was an accident,” Wolf said in a subdued tone, looking at Sara with eyes that adored her. “But I’m not sorry. I’ll never be sorry. Sara, and a baby. It’s like Christmas.”
Amelia let go of Sara and walked up to the big man. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you very well. I made assumptions.” She hugged him, then moved away. “I’m really sorry.” She brightened. “I can crochet. I’ll make little booties and blankets and... Do you want something to eat?”
“That went well,” he whispered into Sara’s ear as they followed Amelia, who was still talking, toward the kitchen.
“Coward,” she whispered back, and bumped her hip against his.
“Same back at you,” he whispered, and bumped her. Then he groaned, because it hurt.
She laughed, pressing close.
* * *
BUT WHEN THEY saw the news, later, it was agony for Sara, to watch her brother being barbecued by the media for something she knew he didn’t do.
Gabriel managed to get a call through to her later in the day. “The story’s going to break like a carton of eggs on pavement,” he told his sister. “I don’t know how the hell they found out so quickly.”
“Our ward told them,” she replied coldly.
“Michelle?” he asked, aghast. “No! No, she would never do that to me!”
“She did,” came the terse reply. “She was on the news, explaining her position. She told them that Americans who perpetrated such offenses should be publicly hanged.”
He was silent. “I wouldn’t have believed it of her.”
“Nor would I. Not after all we’ve done for her,” Sara said.
“I don’t want to see her again. Ever. I want her out of my life, out of yours.”
“Yes. I’ll take care of that. You be careful,” she added gently. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“There’s one little thing I should tell you...”
“What?”
“I’m pregnant.”
There was a shocked pause. “Wolf said you went to a clinic...”
“I did. I went in the front door and out the back. And Wolf and I were married this morning.”
“I need to sit down.”
She laughed softly. “I’m so happy,” she whispered, lowering her voice so Wolf wouldn’t hear and be embarrassed. “I love him so much I can hardly bear it. He wants the baby, very much.”
“I’m sure that he wants you, too,” he said.
“He’s very fond of me,” she said, hiding her sadness that it wasn’t more. He’d never mentioned deeper feelings. She hoped they might come, after the baby was born. “And my companion turns out to be a female merc, how about that?” she added with a little venom.
“Guns Grayson isn’t going to let anything hurt you,” he began.
“Guns?”
“She’s the best shot in the unit,” he said, chuckling. “One of the guys, and I mean that in the best possible way. She’s very religious. We weren’t even allowed to curse around her. Gave some of the guys fits.”
“I can imagine! Guns, huh?” She chuckled.
“I have to go.”
“Eb Scott says they have attorneys for you. It will work out. I know it will.”
“Me, too, but it’s going to be rough for a while, until the media finds another juicier bone to chew on,” he said with resignation. “I’ll be in touch, but it may have to be through Eb. I can’t risk having anyone trace me.”
“Okay. Be safe.”
“You be safe. Wolf will take care of you. Good Lord, you should have seen him when he came here, on his way to Ysera. I tell you... What?” There was a pause. “Okay. I have to go. Love you, sis.”
“Love you.”
She hung up, wondering what he was going to say about Wolf. But then her mind went back to the source of this new misery. Her life was in turmoil all over again. So was Gabriel’s.
And she knew who to blame. She called Michelle. She was good for five minutes. When she hung up, she was certain that she never wanted to see or hear from the girl ever again.
Wolf held her while she cried.
“I never thought she’d do this to us. I knew she wanted to be a journalist, I encouraged her. So did Gabriel. But I never dreamed...”
“Shh,” he whispered gently, rocking her against him. “Life goes on. People do terrible things. Then they pay for them.”
His voice was full of remorse.
She drew back and looked up at him. “I never blamed you.”
“I blamed myself.” He smoothed back the long, black hair from her beautiful face. “I almost died. But I kept hearing your voice, whispering to me. I held on, because I thought you might care, just a little...”
She pressed close. “A little!” She groaned. She pressed closer.
He was very still. He was thinking, adding things up in his mind. Her eager response to him, with her tragic past. The way she loved his hands on her. The way she reacted when he touched her, giving, always giving...
“You love me,” he whispered, awe in his tone.
She drew in a breath. “You big, stupid man. Of course I love you. Why would I ever have let you touch me if I hadn’t?”
He chuckled. “Big and stupid?”
She drew back, flushing. “Okay. Not stupid. But big.”
His lips drew into a pucker and his eyebrows went up, and his eyes glittered with unholy glee.
She went scarlet. “That is not what I meant!” she burst out.
He just laughed. He pulled her close and kissed her. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist it.”
“I know where the broom is,” she pointed out.
“Don’t. I’ll reform. Grayson!” he yelled.
She came running. “What?”
“Watch out the window for flying monkeys.”
Amelia, who knew about the running joke, saluted. “Sir, I’ll find them and bring them down, or give my life in the attempt. I swear.” She put a hand over her heart, grinned and left them to it.
* * *
JOURNALISTS MOVED INTO TOWN. They took up all the motel rooms, cluttered the local restaurants and pumped the locals for all they were worth trying to find out anything about Gabriel’s sister, Sara.
But Billings, Montana, like Jacobsville and Comanche Wells, Texas, were small, clannish towns, and they didn’t like outsiders. Not even outsiders who flashed huge bills around fishing for information. They were housed and fed. But they learned nothing.
So they tried to get into the ranch itself. Which proved an exercise in futility. Wolf Patterson met them himself at the end of the driveway, along with a heavily armed party of cowboys and some federal officials. The reporters were cautioned about taking a single step onto federal land and causing damage. Of course, they didn’t know where the Brandon property ended and the federal lands began, and nobody would tell them. Wolf made a few more comments, tongue in cheek, and drove back up to the ranch house.
* * *
GABRIEL PHONED THEM a week later, perplexed. “Have you seen the news?”
“No, we’re boycotting it,” Sara said on Skype, studying her brother’s drawn face. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Actually, Michelle went on national television to d
efend me,” he said. “She found the one witness who knew it wasn’t us, and told the whole world. She wrote articles, went on talk shows, even met with the detective who’s been working the case for us.” He colored. “I guess she really didn’t know it was me.”
Sara winced. “I said some terrible things to her.”
“Did you tell her what I said, too?” he asked.
She just nodded. “She’ll never forgive me.”
“It just needs time,” Wolf said from behind, slipping his arms around her shoulders and planting a soft kiss on her temple. “She’ll forgive. So will you. It will be all right. They’re dropping the charges, aren’t they?”
“Yes. And the real culprits are in custody. But I’m not coming home yet,” Gabriel added with a grin. “I got a job offer. You’ll never guess from who.”
“Whom,” Sara teased. “Okay, spill it.”
“Interpol,” he said. “They like what I did over here. They said I’d make a nice addition to the staff. So I’m thinking of taking it. For the time being, at least.”
“What does Eb think?”
“He’s all for it,” he replied. “He said I needed a change of pace, and this would be it. He’s got plenty of new students who can fill in for me, when he needs help.”
“I could go,” Grayson said.
“No!” three people shouted.
She held up her hands, grinned with pure delight and went back to the kitchen.
“She’s our treasure,” Sara said. “She’ll never get out the door.”
Wolf chuckled. “Not without bolt cutters and a gun, at least.”
“She really is a treasure,” Gabriel added. “Saved my life once. No, I’m not telling you. It was a classified action.”
“Wow,” Sara said gently.
“Yes. Grayson is in a class of her own.”
“Well, I’d better go. But I’ll be in touch. I may be home in a few months. In time for the baby, I hope.”
Sara looked up at Wolf. “In the winter,” she whispered.
“This winter,” Gabriel said with a big smile, “I’ll be an uncle. I can’t wait. What is it going to be?”
“A baby,” Wolf said disgustedly. “Weren’t you listening?”
“A boy or a girl baby?” he persisted.
“We have no idea,” Sara said with twinkling dark eyes, putting a hand on her husband’s arms, cradling her. “We’re letting it be a surprise.”