“I know that.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen from here on out, but I want you to know one thing.” She didn’t look scared anymore. Not at all. “Noelle comes first. Her safety is more important than mine. Her life is more important than mine, and if there comes a time you have to make a choice about who needs protecting?” She shook her head. “There is no choice. My little girl comes first.”
“I hear you.”
“Promise me,” she insisted softly.
“Vic...”
“I’m not getting in that car until you promise.”
Del sighed. “Okay. Noelle comes first. I got it.”
“Promise.”
Knowing it was the only way he’d ever get her out of here, he did.
Chapter 6
She’d managed to doze in the passenger seat for a while, but Vic opened her eyes as Del turned the sedan onto a long driveway. Once again, they were in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t much to be seen through her window; no highway, no tall buildings, not a man-made thing in sight. There was just a gently winding driveway lined with overgrown flowering bushes.
They’d left Alabama over an hour ago and were now in rural Mississippi. Del had been cautious, sometimes driving in circles to make sure they weren’t being followed. He assured her no one was tailing them.
Del made one last turn and the house came into view. For a moment Vic forgot the terrible events that had brought them here and admired the view. Oh, how beautiful. More than beautiful, this cottage in the middle of nowhere was somehow stirring. It was a home, a warm place to land after a hard night.
The ranch-style house was white with blue shutters, and the front porch sported not one but two old-fashioned rockers. The flowers growing at the base of the raised porch were more well tended than those along the driveway, adding color and a sense of warmth. There were even lace curtains in the windows, she saw, as an early morning breeze made those curtains dance.
It was a serene, picturesque place, until the front door opened and a woman stepped onto the porch.
Vic knew immediately who the woman was, even though it had been years since she’d seen her. Louise Wilder. Del’s mother.
Louise must’ve been very young when she’d had Del. She had to be in her early fifties, at least, but could easily pass for forty, in her snug jeans and T-shirt. She had a great figure, carried herself like a woman who got her share of exercise and had black hair and blue eyes, like Del. Like Noelle. These days, her hair was not as long as her son’s, but fell well short of her shoulders and curled softly around her face.
“Del,” Vic said as he pulled the car close to the porch. “Is this a good idea?”
“Shock knows where she lives, but that’s it. Her old address is listed on my official paperwork, and she’s been here for years. Her last name’s Kelsey now, so no one can make a connection that way. She remarried ten years ago.” He nodded, almost in approval. “Nice guy who passed away a little more than two years ago. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to link her to me, and even if they do...” He planted cold blue eyes on her face. “The house has a first-rate security system, including a panic button that connects directly to the sheriffs department.” He smiled tiredly. “And we can trust her.”
Louise Wilder—Louise Kelsey—had been a bartender when Vic and Del had dated. She’d been wild even then, not at all like the other mothers. Vic had been a bit fascinated, but then growing up without her own mother around had left her curious about anything outside the norm. Word was, Del’s mother had once been an exotic dancer. Vic had never been sure if that was true or not, but the woman certainly had the face and the figure for it.
Louise came off the porch and gave her son a big hug. “Shock said I should expect y’all early. Biscuits are in the oven. We can sit down to a big breakfast in about ten minutes.”
“Sounds great,” Del said, turning to Vic as she opened the passenger door. “You hungry?”
Vic nodded as Louise released her son and took a step back. The smile didn’t fade, but the light in her eyes did. Of course that light dimmed. Vic knew without a doubt that she would rip out the heart of anyone who hurt her child. Vic had hurt Del years ago. She hadn’t wanted to, he didn’t know why, and after all this time it shouldn’t matter. But Louise seemed to be holding a grudge. Vic couldn’t blame her.
Noelle climbed out of the car, all coltish legs and mussed red hair that stood on end. “Where are we? Dammit, Wilder...”
“Noelle!” Vic chastised. “Language.”
“Sorry,” she said, sounding anything but apologetic. “But I didn’t expect to wake up and find myself back in the boonies again! If this thug is determined to stash us somewhere supposedly safe, why can’t it be in a nice hotel somewhere, with a swimming pool and room service and pay channels?”
Noelle didn’t know yet that she’d be staying here on her own. They’d have to tell her soon, and it wasn’t a conversation Vic looked forward to. Del didn’t plan for the two of them to stay here for more than a few hours, so she’d have to have that talk with Noelle soon. She wasn’t going to be happy about the new plan, but if Del was right and this was the safest place for Noelle, it didn’t matter if she was happy or not.
Vic glanced at Del and his mother again, and found Louise staring at Noelle. She wasn’t smiling any longer, and she no longer displayed a quiet mother’s outrage with the woman who had broken her son’s heart so many years ago. Louise looked at Noelle, and she knew. Of course she saw the truth in Noelle’s face. In an instant, Louise saw what Del didn’t. She saw him in his daughter.
Louise recovered quickly, either dismissing her suspicions as fantasy or deciding to play dumb. For now. “No swimming pool,” she said, “and no room service. Here in the boonies you wait on yourself or you go hungry.”
“Great,” Noelle muttered.
“But I do have cable TV, and if you’d like I’ll let you help with the horses.”
Noelle’s expression changed quickly and completely, from sullen to excited. For a split second she looked like a wide-eyed child again. “Horses?”
“Four mares,” Louise said, turning and heading for the house. “Do you ride?”
Noelle’s face fell. “No.”
“Well,” Louise said as she entered the house, “we’ll have to remedy that.”
“Cool!” Noelle said, eagerly following Louise into the house.
On the porch, Vic laid a hand on Del’s arm. “You’re sure she’ll be safe here.”
“Positive.”
“Then why can’t we all stay, just for a while?” She knew Del was right about the Mayrons coming after the two of them, not Noelle, but the thought of being separated from her daughter at a time like this scared her.
Del reached down and touched her cheek. “They found us at the cabin, too fast and too damn certain. Tripp and Holly want you. Leaving you here would increase the danger in this house tenfold. I won’t take that risk, no matter how small, with my mother, any more than you’ll take it with Noelle. We’re the ones they want. We’re getting out of here this afternoon.”
Vic nodded. Trusting any man didn’t come easy for her, and allowing one to make decisions for her, well, she’d put that behind her years ago. But in this instance she didn’t have any choice. She had to trust Del to know what was best. “Okay. Where are we going?”
Del hesitated. “I don’t know yet.”
Strange as that answer sounded, Vic accepted it without question.
Noelle would be safe here, and that would ease his mind and Vic’s. Then, maybe, they could set about finding Tripp and Holly. What he really needed to do was stash Vic somewhere, but he hadn’t been able to come up with any hiding place he could be certain was safe enough for her. He couldn’t leave her here. If she was found, her very presence would put Noelle and his own mother in danger. She was the one they wanted, the one who had seen Tripp and Holly. He couldn’t leave her alone, either, and no one would protect her the way
he would. This was getting sticky.
Maybe he didn’t want to leave Vic with anyone else because he had such plans for the two of them. Personal plans that had nothing to do with the Mayrons. Tonight, tomorrow night, all the nights to come. Well, all the nights until Tripp and Holly were caught. After that...
He had it bad, if he was allowing his personal feelings for a woman to interfere with the job. If this had happened to anyone else… anyone… he’d be out there hunting Holly and Tripp while a team of bodyguards watched out for the woman involved. But with Vic, he couldn’t let go. Because he wanted her so bad he could practically taste her?
No, it was more than wanting Vic that made him determined to stay close. Deep inside, he knew he could keep her safer than anyone else in the world, and like it or not she was his to protect.
Del stepped onto the back porch, lighting a cigarette as the kitchen door swung shut behind him. Vic and his mother had very little in common, but neither of them would allow him to smoke in the house.
“You could share,” a petulant voice called from the other end of the porch.
Del dipped and cocked his head to look that way, and found a black-clad Noelle leaning against the house as she stared at him. She was excited about helping with the horses and learning to ride, but at the same time she was not pleased to be left behind. The word abandoned had come up often while Vic had tried to explain why it was best for Noelle to stay here.
“You’re too young to smoke.” Del walked down that way, his boots clipping against the weathered wood of the back porch. “And trust me, it’s addictive.”
Noelle smiled, somehow sweet and demonic at the same time. “I know. When you go for more than two hours without a smoke, you start to sweat.”
“You don’t want to get to the point where you have to have these things.” Del took the smoking cigarette from his mouth and wagged it at her. “They’re expensive and nasty and once you get hooked it’s tough to go back.”
“Maybe I’m already hooked,” she said, chin high and defiant.
“You’re not sweating,” Del teased.
In answer, she stuck out her tongue.
Del leaned against the wall beside her. “You really smoke?”
“Yes.”
“Regularly?”
“Every day,” she said. Chin up and eyes elsewhere, she was obviously lying. “But lately I’ve been dragged from one isolated prison to another, and since either my mother or you have been on my back the entire time and there’s absolutely no one else around, I haven’t had the chance to bum a smoke. It’s driving me crazy.”
Del took his cigarette between two fingers and offered it to her. “Okay. Have a puff.”
Noelle curled her lip. “Yew! You had that in your mouth!”
“If you were really addicted you wouldn’t care whose mouth it had been in.”
Noelle screwed up her nose, crinkled her eyes and did something strange with her mouth, silently telling him otherwise. Well, she did have an expressive face.
Del took a nice, long drag and blew the smoke out slowly. “How about a bet?” he asked, flicking what was left of the cigarette to the porch and stepping on it with the toe of his boot.
“What kind of a bet?”
“We quit, both of us. Whoever caves and smokes first loses.”
“What if I don’t want to quit?”
“You haven’t even heard the terms yet.”
Noelle shrugged, and Del continued. “If I win, we go out to dinner. Pizza and a movie, maybe.”
“A date with you,” she muttered. “That’s brutal.”
“And you wear something pretty,” Del said with a grin. “Something pink.”
“Yew.”
“You wear that pretty pink ruffly dress I saw hanging in your closet.”
She snapped her head around and glared, hard. “You were in my closet?”
“Very briefly.”
“I can’t believe you were in my closet! Isn’t that, like, illegal or something? You snoop!”
“I wasn’t snooping,” he said. “I was...” Looking for bad guys wasn’t a comforting answer. “Okay, I was snooping.”
She forgave him, apparently, with a snort. “I hate that dress. Mother gave it to me for Christmas, and it’s absolutely gruesome.”
“I thought it was very nice.” But he also knew it was not the kick-ass style Noelle had adopted for herself these days.
“What if I win?”
“I have this great leather jacket at home. The weather’s too hot for it now, but come winter...” He smiled and nodded. “You’d love it. It’s black, and perfectly broken in. Soft as butter. I love that jacket.”
Noelle grinned. “You do?”
“Yep.” He could see the wheels turning behind that pretty face.
“Since you’ve been addicted much longer than I have, this is going to be way too easy.”
Del offered his hand. “Deal?”
Noelle laid her hand in his. “Deal.”
Del shook his head as their hands fell apart. “Even I wasn’t smoking at fourteen. Does Vic know?”
Noelle’s jaw dropped. “Fourteen? Fourteen? Do I look fourteen, you moron? I’m fifteen."
“You’ll be fifteen,” Del said. “Christmas Eve.”
The girl’s head shook vigorously. “No, I’ll be sixteen on Christmas Eve. Sixteen. Did you really think I was only fourteen or are you just yanking my chain again? God, Wilder, you are such a geek.”
Del didn’t hear anymore, even though Noelle’s mouth continued to move. He heard and felt his heart beating as her words fell into place, but everything else became a dull, deep roar.
When Vic had stood on the front porch of her big white house and told him to get lost, better than sixteen years ago, she’d been pregnant. He stared at Noelle and saw the things he should’ve seen before. She had his eyes, and beneath that atrocious red dye she had black hair; he’d seen the pictures, he just hadn’t been paying close enough attention to details.
Not paying attention to details could get him killed, he knew that.
Noelle, with her smart mouth and her attitude, was too much like he’d been at fifteen.
His eyes, his hair, his defiance.
His daughter.
“Okay, are you already having withdrawal pains?” Noelle waved a hand in front of his face. “Hello?”
“Sorry,” he said, his voice too low. “I was thinking about something else.”
“Get that jacket ready, Wilder. I figure it’ll be mine before sundown.” She smiled, wide and wicked.
Del turned his back on her and went inside through the kitchen door. He pushed down everything that welled up inside him—emotion, anger, wonder—and looked for his mother. He found her trimming the yellowing leaves from a plant in the den.
“We’re going now,” he said, his voice too gruff.
“All right,” she said, serene and accepting.
There had been a time when his mother had been anything but serene. Her life had been hard for a while. Del’s father had left before he was born and a young Louise Wilder was left to raise a child on her own. She hadn’t always made the best decisions, but her heart had always been in the right place. She was strong, like him. Like Noelle. She had bounced back and made a good life for herself.
“Shock said you and Vic probably wouldn’t stay long.” She continued to look at the plant. “I knew you were bringing her with you, but I was still surprised to see her. She hasn’t changed much.”
“No.” He could not stand here and talk about Vic, not now. “Take good care of the kid," he said. “And don’t let her get to you. She’ll try.”
“I managed with you, didn’t I?” His mother turned, smiling widely as she set her scissors aside. “Noelle might be tough, but I’m tougher.”
He nodded, once.
“Del?” Her smile faded. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
The truth hit him. Not as hard as it had a few minutes ago, when he’d r
ealized that Noelle was his child, but it was a blow that made his heart hitch all the same. His mother had looked at Noelle and seen the truth he’d been blind to. She’d looked at her grandchild and recognized all the signs he’d missed.
There was no way he could have this discussion with her here and now. “Not yet.”
“Okay.” She headed for the kitchen, head high. “But you two are not leaving until you’ve had something to eat. Neither of you ate enough breakfast, and you’re not getting on the road without some lunch.”
He couldn’t possibly eat. “I’m not—”
“I don’t care if you’re hungry or not,” she said as she disappeared into the hallway. “Go wake Vic,” she called. “She’s sleeping in the guest bedroom.”
Del walked into the hallway and looked at the closed door Vic slept behind. What now? Did he play it cool? Pretend he didn’t know that Noelle was fifteen, not fourteen as Vid had told him? Or did he wake her and confront her with the lies?
There had been too many lies since she’d come back into his life. He hadn’t told her about being with the DEA, until he’d had no choice. She hadn’t told him about the divorce, until she had to. Small, awkward lies. Truths withheld, until the right moment. But this thing with Noelle—telling him she was fourteen, not telling him that he had a daughter—they were too big to brush aside, too important to forget. He threw the door open, allowing it to bang against the wall. Vic, startled by the noise, shot up. Hair wild, borrowed T-shirt molded to her body, she looked too good, still.
“Time to go, baby.”
Vic studied her fingernails and bit her bottom lip. Leaving Noelle had been difficult even though she knew it was for the best. They weren’t fifteen minutes down the road, and twice she’d had to push down the urge to order Del to go back.
He was probably planning their next move. He’d been quiet, hadn’t said a word since they’d left his mother’s house. His eyes remained focused on the road before the speeding sedan; his jaw was clenched. She wanted to ask him where they were going, what would happen next, but there was something about the unrelenting expression on his face that stopped her.
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