by Jodi Thomas
Sam joined the conversation with a story about trying to round up mustangs one time in Wyoming.
When the cook got in a word, she added, “Your friend dropped off the clothes, special delivery. Until then, I figured Miss Sunlan would be bringing a girlfriend. Then I saw the name on the bags. Griffin don’t sound much like a girl’s name.”
“No, ma’am,” he answered as if he thought he had to say something.
“The delivery came about an hour ago. I had them pressed so they’d be ready for you, Mr. Holloway.” She looked him up and down. “From the looks of it, you’re in need of them.”
“Thanks, call me Griffin.”
“Allie.” She smiled at him. “Allie Ray. I’m married to one of the trainers.”
Griffin took Sunlan’s bags from Sam. “Nice to meet you, Allie. When we drop by to see the horses later, as I know Sunlan will want to do, I’ll look your husband up and say hello.”
The round little cook smiled. “You do that, and, Griffin, if you need anything just ask. I got a kitchen stocked better than most restaurants.”
“Thanks.” He nodded at Sam and followed Sunlan to her room as the old cowboy and the cook left.
“Have a nice visit with the staff?” Sunlan asked.
Griffin grinned. “You jealous, Sunshine?” He set her bags by the bed.
Sunlan studied him. “Maybe I am. For all I know, you like older women with an extra hundred or so pounds.”
He stretched his hands around her waist. “You guessed it. I might marry you all skinny, but I plan to fatten you up as soon as possible.”
For a moment, away from all the responsibilities and pressure, they both seemed to just want to relax and have fun. She put her arms around him and whispered close against his ear, “Kiss me like you did in Mistletoe Canyon.”
And he did. One long, delicious kiss that made them both forget the world for a while.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Midnight Crossing
JAX WOKE A moment before Charlie pressed his nose into his face and whimpered.
“I heard it, too, Buddy. Someone’s out there.” He slipped from bed and pulled on his jeans and boots. The good part of living in an isolated place was it made you aware of every sound that didn’t belong.
Moving with the dog by his side, Jax made it to the front door without even a creak on the wooden floor.
Mallory was curled up, hugging her pillow, sound asleep in her bed by the fire.
Jax slipped on his coat and picked up the rifle. His computer screen blinked the time: 2:00 a.m. Silently, he and the dog slipped outside. He knew his way without light. They crept to the side of the cabin where shadows laced over one another.
Beyond the shade of the hills, he could see a black car parked almost at the tree line bordering Holloway’s land. Whoever was moving around wanted to make sure he didn’t announce his arrival.
Charlie whimpered.
“Easy, boy.” Jax touched the dog’s head. “He’s not close yet. Let him come. We’ll be ready for him.”
Slowly, almost as if the intruder was appearing out of a fog, a man came into view. Tall, thin, an athletic body. He wore black clothes, fitting tight like a professional skier might wear. His head was covered in a black mask. The disguise did the trick; the man moving over O’Grady’s rocky land was almost invisible.
Jax saw no weapon, but the stranger carried what looked like a bat. The guy was cocky. He didn’t see whomever Mallory was staying with as a threat.
Big mistake.
Forty feet away, the man must have stepped in mud. Jax could hear him cussing. He used the bat to scrape off the mud and moved closer. The light from the fireplace outlined the hospital bed inside the cabin. The predator could see his prey. Another mistake. He wasn’t looking around. Casing the place.
Jax waited. The stranger took his time as he headed straight toward the window.
Judging from the moon, Jax guessed fifteen minutes had passed. There was moisture in the air, making the approaching stranger seem to quiver in and out of focus.
Jax felt the weight of the rifle in his hand, but he didn’t raise it. One shot would probably frighten the guy off, but Jax wanted to know exactly why he was here.
Twenty feet out.
The stranger was bouncing the handle of the bat in his hand as if impatient to use it. He’d hurt Mallory badly once, but now, while she was weak, he might kill her. Curtis Dayson had come to finish the job he’d started a few weeks ago.
Jax silently widened his stance. He’d never killed anything in his life except a wild hog once. Violence wasn’t in his nature. He’d spent his entire adult life trying to help people.
Ten feet.
He could see the intruder’s breath now. Heavy in the air. His movements faster. More sure of himself. He still wasn’t scanning the area. His focus was on the window. On Mallory sleeping.
Jax swore his fingers began to sweat on the rifle. He needed to act. Ten seconds from now, the intruder would be at the door. It wasn’t locked. Curtis could break in and get in his first swing before Jax could reach him.
Five feet.
Jax stood frozen. If he acted too fast, he’d tip his hand. If he waited too long, it might be too late to help.
Three feet.
Out of the corner of Jax’s eye, a flash flew from the darkness and bounded off the porch. For a blink, all Jax saw was the whites of canine teeth as a low growl penetrated the silence.
Charlie flew right into the intruder’s face, ripping at the mask, tearing it away as he tumbled.
Curtis screamed and swung the bat, knocking the pup to the ground. He raised it one more time. “You’re dead, mutt, even if you did lead me right to her.”
Just as the bat began to lower, Jax doubled his fists around the barrel of the rifle and swung. A crack of wood sounded. A heartbeat later, Curtis Dayson hit the dirt.
Jax took a deep breath. He’d finally acted. Curtis lay spread-eagled on the ground as if he’d been staked out.
Moving closer, Jax heard the dog whimpering and knew his buddy was all right. Stepping over Curtis, he picked up Mallory’s treasured pet and carried him to the light that suddenly spilled from the front door.
Mallory was up. She moved toward him as Jax set Charlie carefully on the porch. “What happened? I couldn’t see anything, but I heard noises.”
Jax saw her tears as she watched her pet limping toward her.
“I’ll tell you all about it in a minute. Get Charlie inside,” Jax ordered. “I’ll take care of our intruder.”
She glanced at the dark shadow of a man on the ground as she helped the dog through the doorway.
“This guy will be all right. He’s just resting in the dirt.” Jax didn’t know if he was telling the truth, but she was upset enough, she didn’t need to know that the intruder was her ex-boyfriend.
Jax dragged Curtis a few feet and tied him to one of the porch poles with several rounds of duct tape, then went inside to get a flashlight.
Mallory sat by the fireplace, holding Charlie, talking to him, telling him not to be afraid. The pup was looking up at her with his big brown eyes.
“He okay?”
She nodded. “I think he’s just scared.”
“Yeah.” Jax grinned. The gentle puppy had fought like a wolf, but she’d probably never see him that way.
“I’ll only be a few minutes.” He grabbed the shoebox he used as his first-aid kit and went back to the porch.
There was a knot on Curtis’s head the size of a duck egg and deep bite marks on his cheek. Charlie’s teeth had punctured the skin completely through. The guy was spitting and dripping blood from the same hole.
Jax patched it up as best he could.
Curtis was cussing when Jax went inside and emailed Toni, hoping she’d be at her desk at the hospital. Send s
heriff and EMT. Emergency.
Toni answered back in seconds. Is Mallory in trouble?
No, but our unwanted visitor needs stitches. Dog bite.
Sending sheriff and Tiny. Ambulance and both EMTs are out working a wreck.
No hurry. Looks like he’s only in danger of cussing himself to death.
“It’s Curtis out there, isn’t it?”
Jax stood and closed the door so Curtis’s screams were muffled. Without answering her, Jax moved close to the fire and brushed his hand over Charlie.
Mallory whispered, “I think he just had the wind knocked out of him. I don’t feel any broken bones.”
Jax checked, too, just to be sure. “He saved our lives tonight. Curtis came to finish killing you.”
She hugged Jax.
He hugged her back. “I hate to think what might have happened if the dog had not attacked.”
She kissed Jax’s cheek. “You would have saved me. I have no doubt.”
He nodded. “I would have, even if it meant my life. I couldn’t let him hurt you again.”
An hour later, the sheriff’s cruiser pulled up in front of the cabin. Curtis had dripped blood all over his fancy ski clothes and had practically cussed himself out of a voice.
The sheriff left him tied to the pole while he asked questions. After Tiny unloaded two duffel bags, he went to work bandaging up the suspected intruder. “All are innocent until proven guilty, pal, but to tell the truth, I don’t think you’ve got much of a defense. This ain’t a place someone just happens to be walking past and you don’t look like you’re dressed as company.”
Curtis would have a hard time explaining why he was on O’Grady property, in the middle of the night, with a bat in his hand. He tried to claim Jax attacked him, but the sheriff didn’t seem to be listening to that theory.
Finally, Curtis mustered enough voice to complain, “You idiots care more about that worthless dog than you do me. I could have frozen to death out here waiting for you two to show up.”
“No way,” Tiny answered as he cut off the sleeve of Curtis’s jacket. “This is high-dollar gear you got on. I’ve seen the commercials. It’ll keep you warm in the Alps.” The scissors accidentally slid open the material across Curtis’s chest. “Sorry about that, pal. It’s too dark out here to see what I’m doing. I just need to check your vitals.”
“Cut the tape holding me to this pole, you fat moron.”
“Oh, not till the sheriff tells me to. We may not be big-town professionals, but we got an order to this kind of thing.” He felt the jacket’s material. “This feels like seal skin. Hey, Sheriff, you think this guy killed a seal to get these clothes? That sounds like a crime if you asked me. Endangered species, maybe.”
The sheriff was busy getting the facts from Jax, but he yelled back, “I don’t know. Take a few samples.”
Tiny whacked four inches off the knee and a hunk out of the side of the jacket. “No, on second thought, I think it’s some kind of knit.”
“We might need blood samples, Tiny,” the sheriff added. “Have to make sure we cover every detail.”
Tiny cut into the bloody lapel. “Got them.”
“You don’t need blood samples. I’m right here. I’m the one bleeding on my own clothes.” Curtis fought to get free of the tape.
“Right,” Tiny said. “You’re real smart, mister, but then, I’m not the one tied up in the middle of nowhere with a bite mark on my cheek.” He flashed a light in Curtis’s eyes. “That’s going to leave a scar. And if I was you, I wouldn’t eat popcorn in the near future. It’ll fall out while you’re trying to chew.”
Curtis closed his eyes as if he could make the entire night go away.
Sheriff Cline walked out on the porch, still talking to Jax. Mallory stood at the doorway, wrapped in a blanket, with the dog at her side. “Any idea how he found you?”
“Yeah. He tracked the dog. Mallory had Charlie chipped when she bought him. Curtis must have figured it out.” Jax moved close to Mallory and put his arm around her. “I’m sorry he found us, but I’m glad no one in Crossroads turned Mallory in for the reward Curtis claimed her family was offering.”
“How do you know they didn’t ask me to help them find her?” Curtis spat.
“Because they’re dead. If you’d talked to Mallory much, you might have learned that.”
The sheriff pulled his knife and slashed the tape. Curtis didn’t put up a fight as the handcuffs went on.
“I’ll take him to the hospital and get him sewed up. Nurse Adams says she wants to have a talk with him, but I don’t know, that might fall into cruel and unusual punishment. I’ll book him into a cell before I head home for breakfast.”
He turned back to Jax. “You did a good job, Jaxson. Some men would have fired and killed him. You got that right in Texas, you know. He was on your property, definite threat.”
“I know. But no matter how mad I was, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let him kill Mallory’s dog either. So I did what I had to do.”
“You’re a good man, Jaxson O’Grady. Someday you’ll step back into the world and make a difference.”
“Someday.” He said the word, but there was no promise in it. “Right now, I have to get my guest back to bed and cook the pup some eggs.”
Cline walked to his car. Tiny was sitting in the back seat with the prisoner belted in. The orderly took up three-fourths of the seat.
Jax stepped inside the cabin and helped Mallory into her covers. “Try to get some sleep.”
She sat up and kissed his cheek. “Thanks. Sometimes I think you’re my own private guardian angel.”
“Maybe I am. I’ve been looking for a job.” He tucked her in and turned out the light. The fireplace glowed in the room, settling the cabin down into peace again as if nothing had happened in the midnight shadows.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Johnsons
WYATT REACHED FOR his cell the second time it rang. Jamie was in the shower, and he’d hoped to go back to sleep before dawn. He grinned. She’d probably wake him when she finished.
She’d woken him twice last night.
“This better be important,” he said as he clicked on the phone.
“Captain Johnson, you’ve got you a flight out of DFW at midnight. That’s the latest you can leave and get back in time. The mission you’ve been waiting for is a go. We need you half a world away ready to move out in forty-eight.”
“I’ll make the flight.” He hung up the phone, his muscles already tightening up for the job he’d have to do. It wouldn’t take long—a week, two at the most—but if everything didn’t go just right, the exit plan might not work. His job was to follow orders and make sure all his men made it back. No small challenge. The others were younger than Wyatt by ten years or more, but they were like brothers to him. They’d go in as one team and they’d come out the same way.
He didn’t want to talk about the flight or going back with Jamie. She’d only worry, and he never wanted that. He’d told her enough, that she thought he installed listening equipment for a living. Which was true. He just hadn’t told her where or that bombs and bullets were usually flying above him while he worked.
He had hours remaining with her. He’d talked his almost-wife into playing hooky for two days. They’d driven to Dallas and done just what he’d hoped to do. They’d spent the day together after checking into the most expensive hotel he could find.
Then they’d made love. Again and again. Man, he loved that part. But he also loved how they had a running conversation that drifted between them. He could never remember just talking to anyone nonstop in his life.
“Who was that?” she asked as she walked out of the bathroom wearing a towel.
“No one. Just a notice that I’ll be leaving in—” he glanced at the clock “—eleven hours.”
“Oh, what would
you like to be third on our to-do list for that time?”
He grinned. “You got items one and two already planned?”
“Well, I have an idea for one.” She dropped the towel and took a step toward him. “Two is order breakfast.”
He liked the way she thought. “And three,” he said as he lifted the covers, “is go shopping. I want to buy stuff you don’t need. I want to get clothes other than my army stuff and wear them for one day. I want to buy you gifts.” He almost added, for every birthday and Christmas for the rest of your life, but he didn’t want to think about not being there to open them.
She moved against him. “Let’s not count the hours. I couldn’t stand to. For today, we’ll just be Mr. and Mrs. Johnson on a holiday in Big D.”
“I like that idea. We’ll come back here and go to bed tonight. I’ll leave you sleeping. I think I’d like remembering you that way.”
She giggled as if it were only another day, another game they played.
They made love, then slept a few hours before ordering breakfast. Then they got dressed and went to the Galleria. He bought her fancy dresses she’d probably never wear and sweaters to keep her warm and sexy nightgowns.
She talked him into a suit and Western clothes and a leather jacket.
Wyatt wanted to spend money, lots of money, just because it made her smile. The laughter kept them from counting the hours. They walked the mall and watched the people, bought books they’d probably never read, went to a movie. As usual, he fell asleep in the middle of the movie, and she woke him up, laughing. They both knew they were living a lifetime in a day.
At nine, they went back to the hotel and tried on some of the clothes. Then they made a slow tender kind of love that was so beautiful, he felt her tears on his shoulder when they were finished.
“It’s all right, baby,” he said. “I won’t promise you something I can’t keep, but I do promise you that I will love you as long as I live. When I die, be it next month or eighty years from now, your face will be the last I see.”
She pressed her body the length of his and kissed him.