by Unknown
“Just him shouting my name, after that, everything’s kind of a blur. Was anyone else hurt?”
“Blake shot and killed Karen.” At her look of distress, Danger hurried to explain. “He had no choice. She was firing the revolver at anyone who moved. There were kids on the streets and sidewalks. He gave her a chance to surrender. She fired at him.”
Lacey nodded. “Poor, Blake. He must feel awful killing her knowing she was pregnant.”
“I don’t think he thought about it at the time, but yes, now that everything’s over, he feels terrible. He’s had a lot to deal with over the last few months as have all of us.” He rubbed the top of her hand, making tiny circles with his thumb. “I love you, Lacey. I am so sorry for everything.”
“Don’t,” she whispered, placing her free hand on top of his. “Let’s pick up our life here, begin anew” She freed her hand and placed it on her stomach. “My baby?”
“Is fine,” he said. Danger linked his fingers with hers. “I’m going to be a daddy. I’m going to be the best husband and daddy you and this baby could ever wish for. I promise you.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead. “I want this baby for us, Lace. We’ll make sure he knows about his father, but I’m going to be his daddy.”
“His?”
Danger brushed his lips against hers. “You’ll have a son. Rafe deserves to have his name live on with this baby. It’s a boy. I know it.” He grinned. “I think maybe I’m developing Papa Joe’s ability to see into the future.”
“Ouch. Don’t make me laugh.”
“I intend for there to be lots of laughter in our life from now on, sweetheart.”
A soft rap on the door drew their attention. “Everyone decent?” Blake called.
Blake Hardesty, Danger’s brother-in-law, poked his head around the door. “Stop me now or forever leave it all bare.”
“Come in,” Danger called.
Blake stopped at the foot of the bed. “I wanted to drop by and check on Lacey.”
“She’ll go home Monday,” Danger stated. “The doc wants to monitor her for a couple of days. He wants her blood count back to normal before he releases her. He’s ordered two more units of blood over the next twenty-four hours.”
Lacey searched Blake’s face. “How are you, Blake? I’m so sorry you got dragged into all this.”
Blake removed his Stetson and twirled it between his fingers. “Honey, I was already a part of this, but I’m better. I’ll be all right.” Moving around to the side of the bed, he leaned over the rails and kissed Lacey’s cheek. “Get well, sweetheart.”
“I’m trying.”
He patted her shoulder. “You’ll get there. See you when you get home. Danger, a word before I leave?”
Danger nodded and rose from the chair. Bending over Lacey, he kissed her on the lips. “I’ll be right back, baby.”
She nodded and closed her eyes.
He followed Blake out of the room. They stopped in the corridor and moved to one side out of the way of traffic. Heads close together, Danger asked in a low tone, “Something up?”
Blake faced his brother-in-law. “With all that’s been going on, I didn’t know if you noticed or not, but there’s a couple of strangers hanging ‘round town.”
“I noticed.”
“I don’t like the looks of them. Too smooth, you know? Something’s going on.”
“You get their names?”
“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first. See what you thought.”
“Check ‘em out. See what you can dig up, but be discreet. Above all, be cautious until we find out who they are and what they’re doing in our town.”
Blake placed his hat on his head. “Will do. I’ll wait until you get home with Lacey to let you know what I find out, unless it’s urgent, then I’ll call you. You have your cell with you?”
“Yes. Be careful, Blake. There’s something about those two that makes my skin crawl.”
“Will do. Take care of Lace.”
“I intend to, for the rest of my life.”
“Good for you. Sometimes one true love is all we find in a lifetime. Anna Leigh was my one time. I’m thankful I have a part of her living on in Gidget.”
Danger swallowed past the lump in his throat. His sister would live on in Gidget, just like Rafe would live on through Lacey’s baby.
He cleared his throat. Life was humbling sometimes.
“I know.” He patted Blake’s shoulder. “I miss Anna, too…every day.”
Chapter Twenty
Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I really need it.
~Unknown
Montana
West side of Dancing Star
February 21, Saturday
9:10 a.m.
When Jayla came out of the bathroom Wild was busy at the table cramming canned goods and other staples inside four saddlebags. He didn’t look at her and she wondered just how much she’d damaged their relationship.
She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings.
God, she’d never get it right with this man, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to say she’d marry him until he knew the truth about her, or at least the parts she was willing to face.
There could be no regrets, not on his part. If she lost him again, she didn’t think she’d recover. Not a second time, not now that she knew the taste of his hot kisses, how strong his arms felt around her, and his natural instinct to protect and comfort her.
She loved everything about him, how gruff his voice sometimes got when he didn’t know quite what to say to her, his utter shame and gripping belief that she’d never want him because a male used him for sex, his cowboy manners, and his slow, sexy, western drawl. He intoxicated her senses to the point she felt giddy and saturated with his charisma.
No, she couldn’t bear it if he regretted anything later in their life.
Jayla hesitated, then straightening her shoulders, plunged forward. Might as well bite the bullet and get it over with. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” He still didn’t look up, but shoved something else in one of the saddlebags. “I told you we can’t stay here. We need to prepare. I’m packing as much food as I can.”
Jayla crossed the room and halted him by placing a hand on top of his. He jerked as if she’d scalded him with hot water. “I love you, Wild,” she said.
“No. I don’t think you do. You offered your body to me, an ultimate sacrifice to the convict, but you don’t have a clue what I want or need. Sex isn’t all there is to a relationship.”
“I know that.” Her voice trembled. She drew a sharp breath and slowly released it. She hadn’t realized how much courage it’d take to face him again and tell him. “Besides my body and my love, I have nothing else to offer you. I come to you naked, my heart vulnerable. I love you. Believe that if nothing else. I’ve loved you since I was fifteen. Can’t you see how much you mean to me? I don’t know how else to say it. I love you.”
He pulled free. “You have a funny way of showing it.”
Jayla lifted a brow, took a step back, and slowly loosened the knot on the towel at her breasts. It slithered to the floor and anchored around her bare feet. “I’m all yours. I always have been.”
His hands stilled on the saddlebags. “Well, damn, woman.” His eyes, a deep ocean blue, sizzled with what she prayed were passion. “You just wanna use me for sex,” he said, his breath choppy.
“I want you anyway and anytime I can get you, Wild Remington.”
“Sex is good…anyway…anytime,” he drawled in that lazy way he had of speaking.
Wild moved around the edge of the table and stopped in front of her. His chest rose and fell with agitated breaths. He rubbed his heart as if he hurt in that one spot.
The slow way he slid his hot gaze up and down her made her womb clench. Heat pooled between her thighs. Her heart pounded. The blood zinged through her veins.
Lifting her in his arms, he carried her across the roo
m. “Be gentle,” he said.
She laughed and ran her fingers through his dark hair. “Oh, cowboy, I’m afraid gentle isn’t a word in my vocabulary. I’m gonna give you the ride of your life.”
His eyes flashed dangerously. “So…I take it I don’t need my spurs?”
Laughing, she shook her head. “Nah. I promise you a good bucking without them.”
He laid her on the mattress. Stepping back, Wild kicked off his boots, socks, and jeans. Skinning off the plain white briefs, he followed that with a toss of his shirt. Coming down on top of her, they rolled across the bed laughing and kissing. He wrapped his arms around her, slowly gliding his fingers up and down her back. His touch, smooth as satin rubbing her skin, felt incredible.
Jayla walked her fingers up his spine, pausing at the silky hair at his nape. Stroking the soft curls, she pressed tiny kisses along his hard jaw line. Wild searched for her mouth, first tasting her lips, sipping and nibbling until she whimpered with need.
He gave her no mercy, trailing velvety, moist kisses down her throat until he reached her breasts. There, he rubbed her nipples with his thumb tips until they tightened in response, begging for his mouth. He didn’t disappoint, drawing on one, then the other, teasing and suckling until she thought she’d claw his back raw.
Wild skimmed the backs of his fingers along her arms, light as a fairy’s kiss. She’d never felt anything more erotic than his airy touches. Her body melted like warm honey. Heat washed over and through her. At last, rolling her beneath him, he nudged her knees apart. She didn’t wait for him, but wrapped her fingers around his hard cock and guided it to the sleek entrance of her feminine sheath.
“You’re sure?” he whispered on a soft groan. “God, I don’t wanna hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me, and I’ve never been so certain of a thing in my life. Love me, cowboy, long and hard and deep.”
Unable to hold back any longer, Wild took her in that moment, but like everything he chose to do, he did it his way, slow and deep, easing his hard shaft inside her until he was fully seated. Clawing the sheets, Jayla thought she’d go insane from the utter slowness of his deep penetration.
He treated her as if she’d break.
No man had ever given a damn if he bruised her.
Jayla wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh. But mostly, she cherished the way he loved her, slow and easy, taking his time possessing her. Unhurried, the cowboy must have invented the leisurely ride.
With that first measured entry, she knew what he was doing and why. You had to love a man who cared enough about you not to let go with his own need, his own passion, but held back. At the same time, the long, deep thrusts, his deliberate withdrawals, the slow entries over and over drove her a little crazy.
She’d die or simply implode from the pure pleasure of him being so deep inside her body.
Jayla screamed her frustration, clawed his back in demand for him to speed up, take her harder and faster, but he never changed his pace and it was good—so damn good, so much better his way.
The desire, the aching need built and built, until at last, she whimpered and arched beneath him. Her body shuddered with the powerful climax he gave her. Wild matched her body, trembling as he took his own pleasure. His seed wet her, warm liquid that rushed inside, warm as melted honey.
He buried his face against her throat, his breaths ragged. “One of these days, lady, I’m going to take you hard the way you want me to, and so damn fast, you’ll know you’ve been ridden by a cowboy.”
“Oh, I know it, already,” she choked out the words still reeling from the little shocks bursting throughout her body. “If it gets better than this, I’ll simply melt into a gooey puddle.”
He grinned. “Yeah?” He eased out of her and rolled onto his back.
Jayla curled around him, a sleek, satisfied kitten ready to purr. She traced her fingers through his chest hair. Bursting with happiness, she sighed. “Yeah.
He tightened his arms around her, and gently glided his fingers up and down her hip. “I wish I’d been the first with you.”
She swallowed back her tears. “In my heart, you are, and always will be.” She closed her eyes, thankful she was at last in the arms of her cowboy.
* * * *
Rimrock, Montana
February 21, Saturday
3:00 p.m.
“If there’s one thing I detest, it’s a damn nosy deputy,” Kane Masters stated in a voice as frosty as the frigid air. The freezing air rushed inside as he closed the door to the motel room and stomped the snow off his boots. “Fuckin’ weather, didn’t think the snow was ever gonna stop.”
“It hasn’t stopped,” Zaden warned. “It’s just taking a breather. Who’s the deputy asking questions? Is it one of those steely-eyed lawmen I saw when I drove through town yesterday?”
“Yeah. The one with the close haircut, name’s Blake. He’s been asking questions about us all evening.”
“Don’t fret. No one knows anything about us.”
“I don’t like it,” Kane snapped. “Questions lead to more questions until they find the answers. We need to rent a couple of snowmobiles and get the hell outta here before they discover something we don’t want them to know.”
“You know where we’re going?” Zaden asked.
“Yeah. That convict has a cabin about a hundred miles back in the mountains.”
Zaden scowled. “How’d you come by that information?”
Kane shrugged. “I like to be the one asking questions.”
“You shouldn’t question the locals. They tend to gossip.”
“They have all the answers.”
“Who’d you talk to?”
“Jim Waters. He owns the local store. Hell, it’s the only one in town. It looks as ancient as the owner. Doesn’t anyone here believe in progress?” Kane clenched his fists with frustration. Already sick of this one-horse town, he felt the locals were a bunch of yahoos. He craved the bright lights, the fast living of D.C.
Why would Jayla want to live here?
“Towns like this one don’t progress. The people here prefer the quainter lifestyle.” Zaden nodded. “I know where Waters’ Grocer is. The old man lives in an apartment over the store. He has a cheeky granddaughter who checks on him daily.”
“That’s the one.” Kane shrugged out of his coat and tossed it on the foot of the bed.
“He’ll be easy to off.”
Kane scowled. “Why are we offing him?”
“If he talks to you about others, then he’ll talk about you to others. We need to get rid of him before we leave town.”
“Whatever you think.” Kane shrugged. Frankly, he didn’t give a shit who Zaden offed in this one-horse town.
Zaden snarled. “I think you need to be the hell more careful. You should have offed him as soon as you finished questioning him.”
“There was a store full of old timers sitting around on the dead pecker’s benches. What was I supposed to do? What would you have me do, off all of them?”
“If necessary.”
“I don’t wanna start leaving a trail of bodies before we even get started. We need a way to escape out of those mountains first. We need snowmobiles.” Kane grabbed a plastic cup off a nightstand and filled it with Scotch. Eyeing the half-empty bottle, he wished he’d thought to buy another one while he was strolling about this piss-poor town. “The old man was full of news and willing to share it,” he continued. “It seems our cowboy isn’t very well received in town. They’d like to see him gone, maybe even dead. I plan to accommodate them.”
Zaden held out his plastic glass for Kane to fill. “Forget about renting snowmobiles in Rimrock. The closest place to lease them is at Havre. But I spotted a pair we can steal after dark.”
“Nice. That’ll save time. How’s the shoulder?”
“Well enough to get the hell outta this Podunk town.” He rubbed his crotch. “If I’m stuck in this hole of a room much longer, you’re gonna start looking good enough to f
uck. It’s been awhile. I’m getting jammed up.”
Zane grinned. So far as he knew, Zaden’s cock was always jammed up. “I wouldn’t be the first man you screwed,” he said snickering.
A sharp rap on the door interrupted their conversation. Kane whipped around. He placed his finger across his mouth in warning, then crossed the room and peeped through a tiny opening of the curtains. He turned to Zaden frowning. “It’s that fucking deputy. Reckon what he wants?”
Kane felt the handle of the knife stuck inside its leather sheath inside his boot, reassured it was handy if needed. He had the feeling it was definitely gonna come in handy.
“If you knife him, don’t kill him,” Zaden ordered.
“What? Why?”
“I wanna have a little fun with him before he dies. Make him feel it, but don’t gut him.” Zaden pulled a long blade with a serrated edge from under his pillow and tucked it out of sight beside him on the bed. “Invite him in. We’ll find out what the good deputy wants.”
Kane nodded and opened the door. “Come in, Deputy. To what do we owe the honor of a visit from Rimrock’s finest?”
Blake stepped inside and Kane closed the door. He shifted behind the man, immediately placing the deputy in a vulnerable position. His dick twitched and pressed urgently against his zipper. Behind the lawman, Kane grinned. Damn, killing someone up close and personal always gave him a hard-on. There was nothing he liked better than offing a nosy lawman.
The last two days had been boring as hell. He was ready for some action.
Zaden was right.
Time to liven things up and rock this old-fashioned town and the people in it.
Why not start with the deputy with the sad eyes?
Chapter Twenty-One
Just when I thought that love could never be a part of me, that’s when you came along and showed me happiness!
~Elvin
Montana
West side of Dancing Star
February 21, Saturday