She flashed him a grateful smile and then stood. “Thanks.” She paused for a moment. “You know, you might look a lot like Samuel, but you’re really nothing like him.”
“That’s the best compliment you could give me,” he replied. She nodded and left the kitchen, leaving Micah alone with his thoughts. There were times when he was haunted by the possibility that he was more like Samuel than he wanted to admit.
He’d worked as a mercenary, infiltrating for the sole reason of taking out a life. He’d fooled men and women, pretending to be something he wasn’t, focused solely on what he’d been paid to do.
Did that make him like his brother? Were they both narcissistic power seekers who simply used different methods to achieve their goals?
Disturbed by his own thoughts, he got up from the table and carried his and Darcy’s cups to the sink where he washed them out and set them on a drainer to dry, then went in search of Olivia—telling himself he needed to pick her brain about everything she knew about the Community Center—but in the depths of his heart he suspected he just wanted to see her beautiful, sweet smile to erase the doubts about himself he’d just entertained.
* * *
Olivia had learned soon upon arrival at the safe house that it was located in Hidden Valley, and her favorite place to spend time was in the secret garden where the sun shone down and Sam could play in the last of the late summer grass.
Besides, she felt like they needed the sunshine to keep their internal clocks set right. It would be easy in the cave to lose track of day and night and she wanted to know exactly how many days she’d been without her baby Ethan.
At the moment she was seated next to June, who had been sharing with her the trauma of nearly dying a month before when two of Samuel’s henchmen had managed to infiltrate the safe house. Nearby, Jesse Grainger, a rancher from the Wind Rivers foothills, walked the rows of vegetables, giving the two women a chance to talk alone.
Initially it had been June who had saved Jesse’s life when she’d found him half-dead and suffering from amnesia in the forest. But on the night of the attack, it had been Jesse who had saved June’s life and in the process he’d won her heart.
One of the infiltrators had been killed and the other had been taken away by the FBI, leaving the location of the safe house a secret.
Sam sat at their feet, his attention divided between the sippy cup of juice he clutched in his chubby hand and Eager, the black Lab that lay dozing at June’s feet.
“Sooner or later Sam’s going to make a grab for Eager,” Olivia said as she watched her son sizing up the big dog.
“Eager is very tolerant of people and children as long as I don’t have his work leash on him,” June replied. Eager was a search and rescue dog who June often took with her to the woods to help hunt for people in trouble—or people trying to cause trouble.
The warmth of the mid-September sunshine on Olivia’s face was welcoming and yet she couldn’t help but wonder if Ethan was enjoying the sunshine. Was he someplace swinging or playing in a sandbox, enjoying the last of summer with other children his age? Or was he locked up in some room with an armed guard as a playmate?
“Micah promised me last night that he’d get my son out of Cold Plains,” she said to June.
“He strikes me as a man who doesn’t make promises easily,” June replied with a touch of obvious surprise.
“I just hope Ethan is still in town.” Olivia swallowed hard against the lump that had risen in her throat. “You know there have been those rumors of illegal adoption activity.”
June nodded. “That’s Rafe and Darcy’s biggest fear for his son, that he’s already been adopted out to somebody and they’ll never be able to find him.”
“If that happens to Ethan then I’ll spend the rest of my life looking for him. Surely when Samuel is eventually brought down, the FBI will find paperwork or something that will name a baby broker, somebody who will be a lead to where the children went.” She tried to tamp down the anxiety that threatened to take hold of her.
But a different kind of anxiety filled her as Micah stepped outside. Every nerve in her body hummed at the sight of him. Instead of wearing the camouflage clothing she’d been accustomed to seeing him in, he wore a pair of jeans that hugged his slim hips and a long-sleeved navy polo shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders and muscled chest. He was clean-shaven and the scent of minty soap clung to him.
He looked sexy and rugged and utterly capable of accomplishing anything he put his mind to. He smiled as he approached and her heart fluttered, the memory of those sensual lips pressed against her own heating her insides.
“Nice day to be out here,” he said as June stood from the bench where she and Olivia had been seated.
“Unusually warm for this time of year,” June replied. “Won’t be long and it will be too cold to sit out here. I hate to think about the snow falling.” She looked from Micah to Olivia and smiled. “I think I’ll head inside and get started on something for dinner.” As she moved toward the door, Jesse gave a nod to Micah and Olivia, and then, along with Eager, they all disappeared back inside.
“Mind if I sit?” he asked and gestured to the place next to her on the bench.
“Of course not,” she replied, although she couldn’t halt the rapid race of her heart at his nearness. “I want to thank you for all the things you got from my house.” She’d been delighted when she’d opened the rucksack earlier and had discovered not only diapers, but also clothes for both her boys and for herself.
“I figured your life was in a big enough uproar that at least you should have some of your own things to make you feel better.”
She rubbed her hands down the thighs of her well-worn, comfortable jeans. “I definitely feel better in my own clothes.” The long-sleeved cotton red blouse she wore didn’t tug across her breasts and made her less self-conscious than she had been in the borrowed things. And she couldn’t believe he’d thought to throw in the bottle of her favorite perfume.
“I want to pick your brain about the Community Center,” he said.
“What about it?” she asked in surprise.
“I believe that somewhere in that building are the secret rooms we’re searching for, that it might be the place where Samuel is holding both Rafe’s son and yours. It’s just a gut feeling, but I want you to tell me about every room, every doorway you know of in the building.”
“Why do you think there are any more secret rooms there?”
Micah’s eyes narrowed slightly and, with the cast of the sun on his lean face, he looked more like his brother than ever before. “Because Samuel is a sadist and I think he’d get off on the idea of having his nightly seminars with all his people gathered in the auditorium and not knowing that some of their loved ones are locked up right beneath where they stand.”
He shrugged. “I’m just trying to get into his head, to think the way he’d think.”
“Try not to do too much of that,” she said drily. “I think his head is a very dangerous place to be.”
He smiled and in the warmth of that gesture all semblance of Samuel fell away. Samuel smiled often, pretending to be a loving father figure, a benevolent leader who wanted nothing but good for the town and its people. But she realized now that when Samuel smiled, no real warmth danced in the depths of his eyes.
“There really isn’t a lot to the Community Center. Samuel has an office there, where he spends most of his time during the days and the evenings. I sat in the reception area. There are a couple small rooms that are used for more intimate counseling, and then there’s the auditorium where he holds his town meetings and seminars.”
“What about storage closets?”
“There are three that I know of,” she replied thoughtfully. “But somebody told me they’d already found a tunnel beneath the Community Center that led out of o
ne of the closets.”
Micah nodded. “I can’t help thinking if there’s one tunnel then there could possibly be another one, leading to another place inside the building. I know the one that was found is thought to be an old settler tunnel used as a hiding place from marauding Indians, and I assume Samuel might intend to use that as an escape route if he ever needs to. It leads partway up the mountain, but he isn’t the type to leave himself only one option for escape.”
Sam reached out and grabbed Micah’s knees and pulled himself up to his feet. Micah looked surprised as Sam gave him one of his most charming grins.
“Sorry,” Olivia said and reached out to grab her son.
Micah lifted a hand to stop her. “He’s fine.”
Sam slapped him on the knee and laughed, as if agreeing with Micah that he was just fine. A small smile curved the corners of Micah’s lips. “He doesn’t seem to have many trust issues,” he observed.
Olivia smiled ruefully. “He’s never met a stranger he didn’t like. Children are born pure and trusting. They have to be taught not to trust. Unfortunately they learn too early that people aren’t always what they seem, that promises are rarely kept and that sweet unadulterated trust they’re born with is broken.”
She should have learned her lesson about trusting men when she’d been old enough to realize her father had abandoned her and her mother when she was just a baby.
“Have you ever been in Samuel’s house?”
She blinked at the question that came out of nowhere. “A couple times, mostly just long enough to step into his foyer to deliver or pick up paperwork. But, last year he gave a big Christmas party there and invited all the people who work for him. Why?”
“According to what Hawk told me, they haven’t been able to get anyone inside. They have no grounds for a warrant and it’s guarded at all times. Not even any of the men who are working undercover have managed to get through the front door. What’s it like on the inside?”
Sam sat back down on the ground, apparently bored by the adult conversation. He made no move to crawl away. Sam was pretty much content wherever he found himself. It was Ethan who had been her little explorer, always crawling or running with her chasing after him.
“Olivia?” Micah’s voice pulled her back and she looked at him.
“Samuel’s house is beautiful. I’m sure you already know it’s in an area of town with huge houses and yards that abut the mountains. Inside, there’s a large foyer with a grand staircase that leads to the next floor, although nobody went upstairs the night of the party. The party was held in the great room, and it is magnificent with a stone fireplace and a wet bar and a wall full of sliding doors that lead out to a balcony. The house is built on a rise, so when you walk in you’re actually on a second floor.”
“Selling tonic water must be lucrative,” Micah said drily.
Olivia grinned ruefully at him. “Oh, Samuel gets money from much more than just the tonic water. We pay to attend his workshops. If he suggests private therapy then that’s another expense. I imagine he probably gets a kickback from all the businesses in town.”
“Yeah, that’s what we figure, but according to Hawk they’ve been unable to gather enough evidence of
anything to get Samuel behind bars. He’s played things very safe and close to his vest. Even some of his devoted worker bees that we’ve managed to gather up won’t turn on him.”
Olivia leaned back thoughtfully and raised her face to the sun, needing the warmth to fill her soul as she went back to the night she’d seen Samuel kill a man.
She finally returned her gaze to Micah. “You know, even if I go to the FBI and tell them what I saw Samuel do, it’s only my word against his and I’m sure he’ll have half a dozen people who will alibi him for that time on that night. I honestly don’t think my statement would move your investigation any further along and, at the moment, all it would do is put my son at greater risk.”
Micah raked a hand down his lean, handsome features. “And we don’t want that to happen.” He released a deep sigh. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think you’re right. If it comes down to your word against Samuel’s, he’ll be pulling alibi witnesses out of his ears.”
“There’s a lot of fear in that town. People are afraid to speak up against your brother,” she said.
They fell silent, the only sound the song of a bird in a nearby tree and Sam patting the ground like it was a drum. For Olivia it was a tense silence as her mind refused to stop playing the kiss they’d shared through her head.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the way it had felt to be held in his arms. She also couldn’t help but worry about him. It was obvious he was determined to take down Samuel at all costs. Hopefully in the process he’d find her son and reunite her with him.
But, in the meantime, she knew the danger he faced each time he got near Cold Plains. She understood that those nights when he crept beneath the cover of
darkness into the streets of Samuel’s paradise, the risk of him losing his life was very real.
Definitely her trust in him grew by the minute, especially after he’d shared so much personal information with her. But she didn’t want to care about him. She didn’t want her heart to somehow get tangled up in his.
There was a battle brewing, a battle of epic proportions. What frightened her more than anything was the fact that there was no way of knowing which brother would remain standing when the war was won.
CHAPTER 6
As Micah and Hawk moved through the forest toward the small cabin where three FBI agents were hiding out, Micah couldn’t get Olivia and her children out of his head. When Sam had pulled himself up using Micah’s legs as support and given Micah that wide grin, something soft had risen up inside Micah, something he hadn’t known he possessed.
The last thing he wanted at this moment was to embrace anything soft that might be hidden on the inside. He needed to be tough. He needed to be strong and single-minded for what lay ahead.
Get Ethan and Devin out of town and take down Samuel. Avenge Johanna’s death and cut the evil cancer from the earth forever. It was like a constant mantra in his head as he moved behind Hawk toward the meeting place.
Still, it was hard to stay tough, and not to allow some of the softness he’d discovered to seep to the surface whenever he was around Olivia.
It had been a week since he’d found her crouched in the bushes and had taken her to the safe house. In the last couple days, she had seamlessly fit into the group, offering to help whenever possible and building a special relationship with Darcy because of the two missing children.
He’d spent a lot of the last week with her, talking not just about the Cold Plains and Samuel, but also about her life with her alcoholic mother and her desire for something so much more, something so much better for her own children.
It was only after Sam had gone to bed, when the night was full upon them that he saw the despair creeping into her eyes, that he watched the slight tremble of her hands as she realized yet another night was about to pass with Ethan still gone from her arms.
When she finally went to her room, he fought the impulse to go with her, to hold her and comfort her, because he feared that comfort would lead to another kiss and a kiss would lead to something far more than either one of them needed in their lives at this time.
He was here with a single purpose and when that goal was accomplished he had no idea what the future held for him, but he was certain it wasn’t a fragile blonde with two fatherless children.
They were in the very depth of the forest now and Micah knew Hawk was as tense as he was as utter darkness folded in around them. Scurrying noises indicated furry creatures shunning their human presence in the wild domain that should have belonged only to them.
Micah knew the difference between the natural sounds of the forest and the alien
sounds of hunters and he knew Hawk could discern the difference, as well.
Each man carried a penlight to shine on the faint, overgrown path they followed. Although they would prefer to move with no light at all, it was impossible as not even a sliver of moonlight penetrated the wildness that surrounded them.
Some of the tension that had ridden Micah’s shoulders eased as he spied a faint light flicker in the distance. The cabin. Hawk had told him there were three FBI agents holed up there, coordinating the investigation, and Micah was anxious to talk to them, to kick around ideas for making some sort of forward progress.
He felt as if everything had stalled out, and each time he saw that sadness that shadowed Olivia’s beautiful eyes, his need to do something to break the case wide open grew more intense.
Hawk halted abruptly and Micah nearly back-ended him. The agent took a radio from his pocket and warned the men in the cabin that he was coming in with one.
From the outside the cabin appeared to be an abandoned hunter’s hideaway. The rough wood of the small place blended perfectly into the tall trees that huddled against it.
As the two men approached, a flash of light shone at a window, there a moment and then gone. It was only when the door opened that a light spilled onto the forest floor and then quickly disappeared as the door slammed shut behind Hawk and Micah.
In the first instant of being inside the cabin, Micah was eternally grateful that he wasn’t one of the three men sharing the small space. Before the introductions between the men were made, Micah felt more than a faint touch of claustrophobia building up inside him.
Boyd Patterson, Stephen Jeffers and Lawrence Rosenbloom all had the wild eyes and vibrating energy of men cooped up in a small space for too long. They greeted Micah and Hawk with the friendliness of long-lost relatives, obviously eager for somebody’s company besides their own.
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 Page 99