by Unknown
Did she really need two bottles?
And what the hell was the difference in clear and cloudy?
It sucked not knowing.
First chance, he’d spend some time researching the disease.
He glanced over the back seat and saw a red plastic ice chest shoved up against the passenger seat.
Hadn’t she said she had to keep the insulin cool? He snorted. Here it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a Billy goat, and she has an ice chest. He flipped up the lid. Apparently, she’d dumped a bag of ice in the little cooler anyway. He prowled through the layers of icy chips, muttering about how she was out to get him.
Sure enough, he found a Ziploc plastic bag with two bottles of insulin, the one with cloudy liquid marked with a big black N, the one with clear with a large black R.
“Thank you, God.”
Wild grabbed the bag and tucked it inside his coat pocket. Then he checked under the front seat again for a plastic sack Jayla had given him strict instructions not to leave behind. Peeping inside, he noted three unopened packages of bikini panties, one apple-red, one navy-blue, and one sunshine-yellow, a couple of plain white bras, a large, clear bottle of honey-colored shampoo, a tube of mint flavored toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, assorted hair clips, and a brush, along with a small box of those pads she needed.
Wild scratched his jaw and twisted a knot in the top of the sack. Thank God, no more ripping up sheets and making the flat-bed trailers for her, at least for a while. This little treasure trove was definitely going back with him.
Yanking the keys from the switch where Jayla had left them, he decided to check what booty she might have stashed in the trunk, but the unexpected sight of the clothes covered in dried blood made his stomach tighten. He suddenly felt as if he’d been kicked in the chest by a crazed bull. Unable to tear his gaze away, he stared at the bloodstained powder blue suit. “Holy fucking shit!”
He grabbed the skirt, jacket, gloves, heels, and undies and stuffed them inside a plastic sack crumpled on the floor of the trunk. Spying a leather bag, he couldn’t resist a quick look. Jackpot! At least three pairs of jeans, socks, colorful T-shirts and a couple of long-sleeved ladies thermal tops and a pair of sturdy shoes lay neatly packed inside.
Wild took a moment to stuff all his treasures inside the satchel and shut the trunk. Another suitcase set to one side. He opened it, but everything in it was for summer or beachwear. That wasn’t going to do her any good. The wind shifted and slammed through him with a knock-down, staggering punch. Snow, in its entire white splendor dropped from the sky like millions of falling stars, only it didn’t glitter.
“Aw, shit. Not now. Couldn’t you have waited just one more hour?”
But, no, the blizzard bore down upon him, and it was one fierce howling bitch. If he didn’t hurry, night would catch him stranded in this mess. It was the last thing he wanted or needed.
Distant wails chilled his blood and sent a curl of foreboding through his gut. Wild’s head snapped up. An assassin wasn’t the only predator in these woods.
The mare snuffled and stomped restlessly.
“I know, girl. We gotta git now. We don’t wanna meet up with that wolf pack, or the other predator.” Wild draped the handle of the satchel over the saddle horn and climbed upon the mare. “Take us home, girl…and if you can, I think maybe you’d best hurry.”
* * * *
Western Australia
Broome District Hospital
February 20, Friday
10:00 a.m.
Dianna Remington eyed Silver and wondered how the woman could be so chipper when she knew, that like her, her cousin felt as heartbroken and betrayed as she herself felt.
Silver leaned back in the chair she’d claimed beside the hospital bed and pursed her red lips. Her long, pale blond hair fell in unruly waves across her shoulders. It was unusual for Silver to leave her hair hanging loose. Her cousin usually kept it in a single French braid that struck the middle of her back.
Come to think of it, it was more unusual for Silver to paint her lips and go all out with her makeup.
Something was up.
Dianna adored her cousin. Though they’d grown up in different countries half a world apart, every time they got together, it was like they’d never been away from each other, picking back up with whatever conversation they’d left off from.
As young girls, she and Silver had shared their hopes and dreams, but now, neither of them had much to say, since most of their dreams had crumbled before their eyes.
Dianna didn’t like the hurt she read in Silver’s soft gray eyes, the wariness that had never been there before Jonas McCord. Her cousin was hurting and it pissed her off to think some man had deliberately hurt her.
“If you want me to, I’ll castrate the bastard for you.”
Silver’s head jerked up. Her lovely eyes widened, but her lips twitched, and Dianna saw a hint of the old Silver there in the flash of humor on her face.
“I want you to, but somehow, I don’t think you can get out of that bed at the moment. The cast on your leg would be a bit difficult to drag around, besides, it’s too late.”
Dianna frowned. “I guess it is.”
“I can’t believe Jonas made that lousy bet. Well, he lost it.”
“No,” Dianna said softly. “He lost you. When I was at Damnboola two years ago, that man couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“You were imagining things. Jonas never gave me the time of day. I was always in his way. He’s in love with Ashton.”
Dianna gasped. “Your bitch of a cousin from your mother’s side?”
“That would be the one. Funny, that’s the same thing she calls you. When Ashton came to live with us after her parents were killed, Jonas turned into a lovesick calf. He always preferred her company over mine. He’ll marry her now that he’s free of me. She’s the one he wanted to marry anyway. This really sucks!”
“How do you know he wanted Ashton over you?”
“I heard him tell one of the jackaroos that he much preferred the company of the orphan cousin to the station owner’s daughter.”
“The douche bag! There’s just no accounting for a man’s taste. In this case, your Jonas has none.”
Silver giggled and wrinkled her nose. “That’s a terrible name to call him.”
“You’re right.” Dianna sighed and fiddled with the sheets covering her body. “How did we come to this–this…” She stopped, blinked, and fought the hot tears misting her eyes.
“This pitiful puddle of despair?” Silver finished for her.
“Yes, this pitiful puddle of despair! Look at us, Silver. We’re both attractive women, reasonably intelligent, good figures. I can say that without sounding conceited, can’t I?”
“As long as you’re including me in your assessment.” Silver grinned.
“I am. We have money to burn. So why the hell did the men we chose to fall in love with not want us? What did we do wrong?”
Silver shook her head. “I’m just thankful I never slept with Jonas. Maybe that was my mistake. I should have given in to a moment of weakness and had my wicked way with him.”
Dianna laughed. “Ow, don’t make me laugh. If it makes you feel any better, I gave into several moments of weakness with Taylor. It didn’t make him love me.”
Silver’s gray eyes rounded and her lips formed a perfect O. “You slept with him?”
“Well, yeah. I thought we were gonna die and I–I had the hots for him.”
“Oh,” Silver said faintly. “Oh, gosh, you aren’t pregnant, are you? I–I mean, were you able to use birth control?”
“I’m not pregnant. Taylor’s sterile.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. He said he was sterile from a previous accident.”
“What if he isn’t…sterile, I mean?”
Dianna’s brows pinched together. “He is. The last thing he’d want is a child with me. I’m only a couple of days late, but God, I’ve been un
der such stress, and I was so dehydrated. It’d be perfectly normal for me to be late or even miss a period. Right?”
“Right.” Silver nodded. “I…guess.”
“I have to get out of this hospital.”
“You can’t.”
“I wanna go home.”
“To Montana?” Silver’s eyes rounded. “But, you aren’t able to make a long flight like that. You’re staying with us until you’re better. Raider already fixed up a bedroom.”
“No, not the Star. I don’t wanna go home to Montana. Taylor will be there. I wanna go home to New York, back to my apartment…where I can nurse my wounds and ego in private.”
“What about your job? Have you talked to your boss?”
Dianna nodded and pleated the snow-white sheet with fingers that still weren’t quite steady. An IV catheter in the top of her hand pushed clear fluids into her body. The nurses had said it wouldn’t be discontinued until she was hydrated to the doctor’s satisfaction. She was ready for the darn needle to come out. “I talked to my captain, explained about the plane crash. He can’t hold my position open indefinitely, so I told him to go ahead and replace me because I had no idea if or when I’d be returning to work, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to return to New York.”
Silver folded her arms beneath her breasts and glared at Dianna. “Now you listen to me,” she said in a no nonsense voice, “you aren’t going anywhere for a long time and when you leave this hospital, you’re going to Damnboola so we can look after you until you’re able to take care of yourself. No arguments.”
Dianna blinked away tears. “Yes, of course. I realize I can’t go home just now.”
“You bet your patootie.” Silver patted her hand and smiled. “You know you have a home at the station as long as you need it. It’ll be great having you with us. It’s been a long time since we spent any time together.”
She squeezed Silver’s hand. If it hadn’t been for her cousin’s determination to find her after the plane crashed in the Australian rainforest, she and Taylor would likely be dead by now. Thinking of Taylor made her heart ache. How could the bastard simply get on a plane and leave her here after all they’d been through together?
“You know what we should have done?” Silver asked, tucking the sheets around her and fluffing the pillow.
Dianna frowned. “Who? You and I?”
“Yep.” Silver bobbed her pale blond head and poured a glass of water. Offering her a straw, she held the glass in front of Dianna.
Dianna took it and sipped on the straw. After being dehydrated, she didn’t think she’d ever get her fill of ice-cold water again.
“What should we do?” she asked lowering the glass.
“You slept with him, right?” Silver eyed her with curiosity.
“What does that have to do with anything or what we should do? What happened between me and Taylor is different. You didn’t sleep with Jonas.”
“I married him.”
“Yeah, but before you married him, you didn’t play the…horizontal thingy.”
Silver grinned. “No. And that’s what makes the entire thing so weird. He made a bet, a big bet that he could bed me, yet, he didn’t.”
Dianna raised a brow. “Did you give him the chance?”
“Oh, yes. Believe me I had my moments of weakness. I wanted him, but he knew I wanted to wait, so even though he made the lousy bet, he always kept me at arm’s length.”
“Doesn’t sound much like a man who wanted to win a bet.”
“Then why make it?” Silver asked. Her eyes, such a pale color glistened with unshed tears. “He had every opportunity to screw me, and he didn’t.”
“Wish I could say the same for Taylor.”
Silver tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed. “No, you don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man as wild in all my life as he was about you and getting help for you. I thought for a while he was literally going to rip the controls out of my hands and fly the aircraft. He cussed every mile it took to get you to this hospital.”
“But he left me here.”
“I know. That’s why I think we should use Papa’s elephant gun on both him and Jonas.”
Dianna giggled. “Oh, God, I told you not to make me laugh. Remember the bed? There wasn’t much left after your dad blasted it that time.”
“I know,” Silver said again. “So where should we aim it, at their cocks or their balls?”
“Oh, all three. Definitely all three. After firing off that gun, there wouldn’t be any little manly parts left anyways.”
Silver giggled and took the glass from Dianna. “Good. I think those two have a few hard lessons coming their way on how to treat a Remington woman.”
Dianna agreed, but there wasn’t much she could do until she was up and mobile. With four pins in her leg and the fact she’d have to learn how to walk again, then weeks of physical therapy, she had a feeling going home to New York wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
Chapter Ten
The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.
~Max Lerner
The Unfinished Country, 1950
Rimrock, Montana
Sheriff’s Department
February 20, Friday
5:25 p.m.
Lacey stepped out through the open door of the Rimrock Sheriff’s Department and huddled deeper inside her fleece-lined denim jacket. Pausing, she glanced at the grey sky and shivered. The smell of snow filled the air, fresh, clean, and bitterly cold. She tasted it on her tongue. It saturated everything. It was coming, and it was going to be a bitch of a blizzard.
She’d pitied anyone trapped out in it, and there was always someone who got caught unaware, strangers traveling through a new state, no extra blankets in their vehicle, no thermos of coffee or hot chocolate, or anything in case of an emergency. One couldn’t always depend on a cell phone to save them. There were simply too many areas of dead space.
She often thought of the pioneers who traveled these rugged mountain passes in search of a better life, a better home, getting caught by early snow, trapped in the mountain passes, little food—lots of death. Somehow they gathered their courage and trudged on, leaving wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, parents, and babies behind in a barely marked grave never to return to that spot again. How hard, how heartbreaking it must have been. But they’d kept coming until the Wild West was settled.
Lacey sighed. Montana. You either loved it or hated it—snow, mountains, and heartache. It all still remained today. God, she’d never expected to love this wild country, or the man standing behind her. Danger. Her husband. But he was as much a part of her as living and breathing, and maybe reckless on her part, but they’d just re-sealed their relationship. Now she had to face Rafe with the truth.
They’d come so far, she and Danger, lost so much, said and done too many cruel things to each other, and somehow, amidst all that destruction, their love survived. Like those hardy pioneers, they were made stronger by the hardships they shared, and determined to save what was rightfully theirs. Their marriage.
Maybe they’d needed time to grow, to realize what mattered.
What was she saying, thinking—what was the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche—that which does not kill us makes us stronger?
Maybe Joseph’s death somehow made them stronger, made them cling to each other, and willing to fight for their love.
Lacey’s footsteps slowed. She should have been able to walk away from Danger and go to the man who loved her unconditionally. Life with Rafe would have always been comfortable and secure. The sex was great, but great sex wasn’t the end all, be all that made a marriage stick like glue. With Rafe, there would never be the same challenges, the fighting or making up with long, hot kisses, the heat or the aching love that stirred her soul, but for one man—Danger.
Spying Rafe waiting patiently for her beside his truck, she hesitated, ashamed of what she w
as about to say to this man.
Danger bumped against her back, halted, and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Lace, are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” Her voice quivered. Tears burned her eyes, choked her throat.
“You aren’t fine,” he said. “Hell, none of us are fine. Not you, me, or Rafe.
She silently agreed. Life sucked. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t great. Not always. What made it bearable, what made it all worthwhile was loving someone and that person loving you back.
Danger’s heat coiled around her, melting the chill that had settled deep in her bones months ago. Yeah, love made life worthwhile. It held loneliness at bay. It gave her hope for the future, but it also made her sad. In order to find her own happiness, she had to hurt a man who’d been nothing but wonderful to her and that was just wrong. Guilt swamped her.
Across the street, Rafe waved and smiled at her. The smile on her lips trembled and weakened. Rafe—the man who’d been there when she needed him, but not her soul mate. Danger. The man who’d won her heart almost four years ago and never gave it back, the man, who, without him, her life wasn’t worth living.
What was she to do?
It shouldn’t be this hard, should it?
But then if it was easy, what kind of person would that make her?
“Lace? You have to tell him.”
And there it was, plain and simple. She had to tell Rafe. “I know,” she said, her voice hesitant. “It’s hard, Danger. He’s been good to me. He was there for me when no one else was.”
“I realize that, sweetheart.”
No matter what she did, no matter how she said it, Rafe was going to be hurt, damaged, broken, and it was her fault. She’d have to live with that all her life. “I think maybe you should wait here,” she said, “let me tell him on my own.”
“Lace—”
“He deserves my discretion.”
“I understand.” He released a long breath. “Come back to me, Lace,” he said. Uncertainty quivered in his voice. “I know Rafe loves you, but I love you too, maybe not better, but I’ve loved you longer. Please don’t let him talk you out of coming back to me.”