Perfect Wyoming Complete Collection: Special Agent's Perfect Cover ; Rancher's Perfect Baby Rescue ; A Daughter's Perfect Secret ; Lawman's Perfect Surrender ; The Perfect Outsider ; Mercenary's Perfect Mission

by Marie Ferrarella

  CHAPTER 13

  When Ford regained consciousness, he grew aware of movement. He was in a vehicle. The back of an Escalade. His Escalade. Rising up, he peered over the top of the back seat and saw a single driver. Alan.

  Blood dripping from an open cut on his forehead caused him some worry. His ribs hurt. His head hurt. He was in bad shape. Those lackeys must have really gone the rounds with him after he’d lost consciousness. He wasn’t even sure he had the strength to get out of his current situation.

  The SUV stopped but Alan left it running. Ford waited until he came around to the back and opened it. Then he used both his legs to kick the man, ramming both feet to his middle. With a grunt of surprise and pain, Alan stumbled back.

  Ford groaned as he climbed out of the SUV. Alan advanced for an attack. Blocking his punch with a forearm, Ford swung in low with his other arm to slam his fist against his sternum. As Alan staggered, Ford used his legs again, kicking high to knock the man’s chin backward. Alan collapsed to the ground. Ford bent over him and pulled out the gun sticking out of his pants.

  Blood ran down his head and he couldn’t take very deep breaths. Alan must have noticed. He grabbed hold of his hand and tried to wrestle the gun from him. Ford fired and the man slumped.

  Hunched over from pain, Ford saw that he was in the mountains at a pull-off on a sharp curve in the road where a cliff dropped down to a canyon. Had Bo tried to make Alan drive him over a cliff or would Alan have just thrown him over? If he hadn’t regained consciousness in time…

  Gemma.

  More than physical pain gripped him as he stumbled toward the Escalade. He was such a fool. He should never have left her alone. No doubt Bo had arrested her. She’d have to wait for him in jail. He just hoped he could reach her in time before Grayson decided to do something else with her, other than accuse her of a murder she didn’t commit.

  Tripping over his own feet, Ford sank to his knees beside the Escalade. He needed to find Hawk Bledsoe. Since he’d missed their meeting, he didn’t even know what the agent had for him. He hoped it was what he’d been waiting for, his secret ace. But he was no good to anyone like this.

  Using the side of the SUV, he rose to his feet and made his way to the driver’s door. He sat in the driver’s seat, dropping the gun in his lap, and struggling to catch his breath. He needed help.

  Pregnant. Gemma was pregnant. It slammed him now in the same way it had when she’d told him.

  Leaning his head back, he felt the day he’d lost his wife push past the wall he’d kept sturdy and impenetrable until now. The day the doctors couldn’t save his unborn baby. They’d gone to the hospital after she’d begun to have contractions. Everything fell apart from there. She’d developed an aneurysm and the doctors hadn’t been able to save the baby in time. The unthinkable had happened: he’d gone from having a wife and a baby on the way to nothing.

  The doctor had emerged from the operating room, blood on his gown.

  I’m sorry to have to tell you this…

  Incomprehensible agony gripped him. He felt it now as clearly as though it were happening all over again. Happiness ripped from his chest. A future he had yearned to experience, taken from him.

  For weeks he’d gone through life just existing, drowning in grief so great he sometimes wondered if he’d be better off dead. He would never have gotten her pregnant if he’d known it would kill her. And the baby. It was bad enough to have lost her. Why did he have to lose them both?

  Anger had spared him. Anger had cleansed the grief. He’d lost his family to murder and a wife to childbirth. Why?

  He realized then that Gemma had been the first woman he hadn’t been vigilant with when it came to birth control. The chemistry was so explosive with her, he could see now that it had been easy for him to turn a blind eye. He’d reassured himself that she surely was on the Pill, or something. He was sure she’d have mentioned something to him. But after that first time he’d known, deep down, that it was different with her.

  Amazingly, there was still a part of him that yearned to have a family again. He hadn’t given up. As painful as it was to risk losing another person he loved, Gemma was going to be worth it. He loved her. Like the first time they’d had sex, that love had emerged unexpectedly. Instantly.

  She’d been right when she’d said he was afraid. But not anymore. He hoped it wasn’t too late.

  Hearing a car approach, he didn’t put the Escalade into gear. He couldn’t see very well and he felt as though he’d black out. He needed more time to regain his strength and equilibrium. If more of Grayson’s men were coming for him, he was in trouble.

  A car pulled up next to him. He blinked but couldn’t see clearly. A man got out and started to walk toward him.

  Ford picked up the gun from his lap just as the man appeared beside the window. It was Hawk, tall and muscular, dark blond hair waving in a breeze and brown eyes hidden by sunglasses.

  “I’m glad you left your cell phone on.” Hawk opened the door and helped Ford to the other side, belting him in and then hurrying to the driver’s side. Then he raced the Escalade back toward Cold Plains.

  “When you didn’t show up at our meeting place, I knew something had gone wrong.”

  “They arrested Gemma. I tried to stop them.”

  “I know. But they won’t be able to keep her.” With one hand on the wheel, Hawk dug into his suit-jacket pocket and handed over a CD inside a clear plastic case. The CD wasn’t marked but Ford didn’t need it to be. He knew what it was.

  He took the CD from Hawk. “Take me to the station.”

  “You need a doctor first. Gemma is fine. I checked on her. She’s in a jail cell and nobody’s going to move her.”

  Ford didn’t ask how he’d checked on her. Hawk no doubt had other contacts inside the police department. “Take me to Rafe Black. I don’t trust anyone else.” Ford shut his eyes as Hawk made a call and told Darcy Craven he was bringing a banged up Ford McCall for an emergency visit. Darcy was the receptionist there, and Rafe’s fiancée.

  When he disconnected, Hawk asked, “Have you talked to the hotel desk clerk?”

  “No. I haven’t had a chance. How’d you know about that?”

  “I saw the paper. It’s a lie.”

  The man didn’t miss much and Ford couldn’t be more grateful.

  Hawk screeched to a halt in front of Rafe Black’s office, an old bungalow-style building set in a tree-lined parking lot with a few stairs leading to the entrance. Ford opened his door and Hawk came around to help him. He began to guide him toward the stairs, but Ford stopped and stepped away from his support.

  “I’m okay. It’s best if nobody sees you with me.”

  After a moment, Hawk nodded once. “I’ll find my own way back to my car.”

  Ford didn’t doubt the agent’s resourcefulness. He started walking toward the street, taking out his cell phone as he did.

  “Hawk.”

  Hawk turned.

  “Thanks.”

  “Thank me after we have Grayson.”

  “I’ll look forward to that.”

  As Hawk resumed his trek toward the street, Ford used the railing to help him up the stairs. Pushing the door open, he ignored two patients sitting in chairs who looked up in shock at the sight of him.

  Darcy’s beautiful blue eyes widened and she jumped up from her chair behind the reception desk. Something about her eyes struck him. They’d captured his notice before, as though they were familiar to him, reminded him of…who? Opening the door leading to the rooms, she went to him.

  “Mr. McCall?” Darcy took his arm for support. “Hawk said you were banged up, not beaten to a pulp.”

  Doc Black’s nurse appeared in the hall from one of the rooms and saw him. “Bring him in here, Darcy.” S
he pointed to the room across the hall.

  Ford entered the room and sat on the paper-covered table.

  The nurse began checking him out, examining his head. “You’ve got a pretty good gash here.”

  “Could you go get Doc Black?” Ford couldn’t be here long.

  “I’ll do it,” Darcy said, and Ford realized she was still in the room.

  Moments later, Rafe entered. “What happened to you?”

  “I was jumped by Grayson’s thugs. They drove me off the road and four of them were on me.”

  Rafe began examining him and then asked his nurse to bring everything he needed to suture him up.

  “You’ve got some pretty deep bruises.” He pressed his ribs and Ford winced. “Maybe a fractured rib or two. Once we get you stitched you should go home and recover for a few days.”

  First he had to go get Gemma.

  The nurse returned and handed Rafe what he needed, and Darcy appeared with a blank chart, putting it on the counter adjacent to the table. Then she stayed, watching Rafe work on Ford.

  When Rafe had finished, he wheeled his chair to the counter and began writing in the chart.

  “I’ll take it from here, Kelly,” Darcy said to the nurse.

  “Thanks. We’ve got a lot of patients to see.” The nurse left the room. Given Darcy’s intimate relationship with Rafe, she was in a position of power here at his office.

  Darcy began washing him, wiping the skin of his face. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

  “What is it?”

  “I need to know how to find someone who’s missing.”

  Why did she need to know that? “Is someone you know missing?” Another one? This was getting to be a regular occurrence.

  She glanced over at Rafe, who’d stopped writing in the chart. He gave her a nod.

  Turning back to Ford, she said, “Yes. My mother. Her name is Catherine.”

  “Catherine…?”

  “I don’t have a last name.”

  No last name. “You don’t know your mother’s name?”

  “She didn’t raise me. She…gave me up when I was a baby.”

  Ah. She was an adopted child looking for her biological mother. “Catherine is a common name. You might try death records and hospitals where she went missing. I can’t guarantee you’ll find anything.” And then something came to him. “Why do you say she’s missing?”

  “Well, I…I can’t find her.”

  Ford studied her for a while. She wasn’t telling him everything. And then he realized why her eyes were so familiar to him. They could be similar to Jane Doe’s. The computer-enhanced photo was a close likeness, close enough to put him on full alert.

  He pulled out the photo he always carried in his wallet and showed it to her. “Have you ever seen this woman before?”

  With a sharply indrawn breath, Darcy took the photo from him. “Her eyes.”

  “It’s a computer-enhanced photo of a Jane Doe I’ve been trying to find. Do you recognize her?”

  “No, but…”

  “Do you think this could be your mother?” The age difference between the two was just about right.

  Darcy studied the photo some more. “She does look a lot like me. But…isn’t this woman dead?”

  “Yes.” He told her the woman was found in the woods outside of town, and that she’d been shot. “She had a D marked on her hip.”

  With that, Darcy’s stunning blue eyes flashed to his.

  “Not a tattoo, a marker was used,” Ford stressed.

  “Do you think she was pretending to be a Devotee?”

  “That’s what we suspect.”

  Darcy’s perplexed state creased her brow. “Why?”

  “We don’t know. Are you sure you only know her first name?”

  Crestfallen, Darcy handed him back the photo, nodding. “That could be my mother.”

  “I’m sorry, Darcy.” If Jane Doe was Darcy’s mother, she’d have to face the realization Catherine was dead. “I’ll let you know if I find anything new about the case.”

  If Jane Doe’s name was Catherine, he was one more step closer to identifying her.

  * * *

  Gemma lifted her head when she heard the sound of voices. Hours had passed.

  “Sir! You can’t go down here! Chief Fargo left specific instructions.”

  “Tell the chief I’m here and I need to talk to him. But first, I’m letting Gemma out of that cell.”

  “I can’t let you do—”

  The sound of shuffling and a fleshy punch matched shadows on the wall. Then Ford came into view. He threw a man onto the floor and stepped over him on his way to Gemma’s cell. Her sexy cop was here to rescue her! Except he wasn’t looking very sexy right now.

  “Ford?” His face was battered and he wasn’t moving with his usual smooth stride. He seemed to be in a fair amount of pain. “What happened to you?”

  “Sorry it took me so long. I ran into trouble and then I had a few things I had to do first.” He was all business as he unlocked the cell. But his shallow breathing told her his business had more to do with moving right now. Unlocking the cell, he took her hand and hauled her into the aisle.

  “Who did that to you?” And then that seemed like a stupid question. Bo had sent someone after him. Had they tried to silence him for good?

  The junior officer had gotten to his feet and now watched them pass, rubbing his mouth.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Upstairs, he led her hand-in-hand into his office area, off which was a small meeting room. Inside, he pulled out a chair for her.

  Puzzled, she sat down.

  He turned on the overhead projector and logged on to the computer. As the screen loaded, Bo appeared.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He entered the meeting room with two officers close behind, aiming their weapons at Gemma and Ford.

  Gemma gripped the armrests of her chair, staring at the end of a pistol. She hoped whatever Ford had was good.

  “I have evidence that proves Gemma’s innocence,” he told the three, holding up a CD. Bending, he pressed a button on the front of the computer that resided under the table and inserted the disc.

  “You no longer work here. You quit, remember? You don’t belong here anymore.” Bo turned to the cop beside him. “Arrest him!”

  As Gemma gaped at Ford with the news that he’d quit, two more policemen appeared, forcing in Wade Herrington, who’d been cuffed.

  “We found him, Ford,” one of the officers said. His partner pulled out a chair at the end of the table, away from Gemma, and forced Wade to sit.

  “You’re all going to pay for this!” Wade growled. His haughty blustering promised backing from Samuel.

  The officer who’d forced Wade to sit moved around the table to Ford and handed him a folder. “After you got the warrant, we searched his house and found this.”

  Ford took it and read through the contents. “Good work.” He smiled at the officers and put the folder down on the table.

  “You better have a good reason for this,” Bo hissed.

  “Watch.” Ford pointed to the screen.

  The video recording of Jed’s murder began to play, only this one had been adjusted so that the picture was clearer. When the man appeared in front of the camera, his image was recognizable.

  Gemma shot a look over at Wade, who wasn’t looking so haughty anymore. He gaped at the screen, and then sent an accusatory look toward Bo.

  “There are more copies,” Ford said, “So don’t even consider trying to destroy this one.”

  “How did you…?” Bo was clearly baffled.r />
  So was Gemma. Where had he gotten this recording? Had he found the laptop?

  “Before I took the laptop to the lab, I made a copy.”

  Gemma should have realized the possibility. He must have given a copy to his friend with the FBI and they’d cleaned up the pixels to make Wade identifiable. He’d used the forensics technician but kept his backup plan a secret.

  “Lower your weapons,” Ford told the officers Bo had brought in. Those two glanced at the chief, who nodded reluctantly, his irritation burgeoning. He had to be getting tired of Ford’s interference.

  They lowered their guns.

  With his fingers on the folder, Ford slid it down the table as he walked to Wade. “I would think a man of your expertise would be more careful. Or did you think you were infallible with Grayson supporting you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Opening the folder, Ford showed him the first piece of paper. “This is a copy of your credit card statement. You made a purchase at a hardware store in Shady Meadow the day before Felix Taylor was murdered. You bought some rope and a baseball bat there.”

  “What we believe are rope fibers were found in his vehicle,” the officer closest to Wade said. “We sent them in for analysis.”

  Ford turned to Wade. “Do you think they’ll match the rope used at the other scenes? The lab technician? Felix Taylor? The man from Shady Meadow?” He paused. “Jed Johnson?”

  In the face of such overwhelming evidence, Wade only glared back at him. Ford wondered how he felt about Grayson now. All the crimes would be pinned to him, not Grayson. He’d believed in Grayson and the cult, felt he had power. Now that power had been stripped from him.

  Ford turned to the officers he’d brought in. “Take him away.” Then he walked around the table to Gemma, reaching for her hand.

  She took it and stood, backing against him.

  “Once again I have to commend you, McCall,” Bo said. The compliment must taste like blood on his tongue. “You solved Jed Johnson’s murder and maybe three others. Gemma is free to go.”