Fiancé by Friday

by Catherine Bybee

  “On the road…cheap hotels, and now I need to add camping. How many more days like this?”

  “Not much longer.”

  “That’s not an answer, Neil.”

  “Three, maybe four days.”

  That didn’t seem like that long of a time. “Then what?”

  “I take you someplace safe.”

  “Where will you be? Someplace unsafe?”

  Gwen could see him shutting himself off from her. In an effort to bring back his smile, she placed her hand on his thigh. “Why don’t we both go to where it’s safe? Let the police handle whoever killed my neighbors. You do think they were murdered, don’t you?”

  “I know they were.”

  “How?”

  Neil moved around a large semi truck having a hard time going up the steep grade into the Colorado Rockies.

  “How, Neil?”

  “I just know. You’ll have to trust me.”

  “You think I don’t? I’d think after last night, you’d know just how much I trust you.” She kept her eyes on him even though his were on the road. “I’m not a child. I’ve gone along for the ride without too many questions at all. We can both agree to that, right?”

  He nodded. Said nothing.

  “How is it you know they were murdered and it wasn’t just an accident?”

  Neil hesitated before he answered. “The ravens. My l-last mission in the service was code named Raven. The dead birds you found were meant to taunt me.”

  “How does a dead bird next to my car taunt you?”

  “Our guy’s a coward. He uses women to get to the men.”

  “So when I didn’t tell you about the dead birds, our guy as you call him, made sure you knew he was causing the problems?” She didn’t want to think of a murderer as our guy.

  “Exactly. He knew I’d take action.”

  “How many people knew about your Raven mission?”

  Neil stretched his neck as he drove. Gwen knew she was pulling this information from him, that it didn’t come freely. Now that she had him talking she wasn’t about to let up. It might be the only time she learned anything.

  “Very few. It was a covert mission. We were an elite group.”

  “How many men were in your company?”

  “Seven.”

  She rubbed her forehead and tried to see what Neil did. “Six men went on the mission with you. How many others knew you were there?”

  “A dozen…maybe less. The bigger the secret, the less people know about it.”

  “So it isn’t likely you can ask your government to step in and help.”

  “The general rank and file of the government knows nothing about Raven. The secretary of defense, the president…one or two who answer directly to them, and that’s it.”

  “Do you think one of the other six men are behind this?”

  Neil glanced at her briefly for the first time in their conversation. A flash of pain met his eyes. “There are only three of us left.”

  Gwen’s heart leapt. “Oh, Neil…I’m sorry.”

  “It happened a long time ago.”

  “That doesn’t make it easier. They were your friends.”

  He nodded. “The best. Four of us made it out alive. One recently…died.”

  “You don’t think that one of your friends did this…do you?”

  Neil snorted. “That’s like asking if you think Blake is capable of killing you.”

  “That’s preposterous.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I’ve read my share of novels,” Gwen said. “And it seems the hero is always trying to get into the head of the killer. What is motivating this guy? Why is he after you? Was there something about the mission you knew and the others didn’t?”

  “I led the mission. But we all knew our goal.”

  “Maybe someone is seeking revenge from the mission itself.” Part of her wanted to ask what the mission was, and then she remembered Neil’s restless night. Perhaps she was better off not knowing all the details.

  Neil shook his head. “Raven was a person. And he’s dead.”

  The conviction behind his words convinced her that he knew this fact because he’d seen it with his own eyes.

  “Did Raven have a brother?”

  Neil’s jaw tightened. “He might have.”

  Yet her logic didn’t make much sense either. “Of course, if Raven had a brother, how could he know about the code name? I assume Raven wasn’t the man’s real name.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “If someone is seeking revenge for Raven…and it’s not directed solely at you, then your remaining colleagues might be at risk, too. Perhaps you should call and warn them.”

  He looked over and gave a brief smile.

  “You’ve already done that.”

  He smiled again.

  Gwen relaxed in her seat and stared at the landscape as it thickened with trees with the climb up the mountain. No wonder Neil was so quiet. There was a lot of information to process. Lots of possibilities, but only a few probabilities.

  If none of the men in his unit were the killer and Raven was dead, that left someone loyal to Raven, or someone in Neil’s own government who wanted him and possibly the others dead.

  Gwen thought of what Neil had said about the recent death of one of the men. “Your friend who died…recently. What happened?”

  “Officially a suicide.”

  Not unheard of from retired military who lived through combat. “You don’t believe that.”

  Neil shook his head.

  That left all of this up to a government conspiracy or Raven loyalists…

  Government conspiracy ranked in Gwen’s mind as impossible. If Neil mentioned a conspiracy chances were others would think he’d been in one too many gunfights. Post-traumatic stress had a way of making sane men paranoid.

  There was no faking dead neighbors and birds left for her to find, however.

  Yet in the back of Gwen’s mind, she thought of Karen’s phobia…and how originally they thought the dead birds were directed at her.

  “I don’t know what to think, Sam.” Blake looked out over the city from the bay window of his West Coast office. “I trust him. I do.”

  “You sound doubtful.”

  “What if I’m wrong? What if something sprung loose inside of him and he’s chasing shadows? When we first met, he was less than stable. Granted, he’s done nothing since that made me question anything.” He hated that he doubted Neil now. “The war was hell for him.”

  “Does he ever talk about it?”

  “No. Only that first night, when we met. A bunch of his guys were blown to bits right in front of him. He blamed himself. That’s all I know.”

  “That couldn’t have been easy.”

  “No.”

  “There’s one thing you can count on,” Sam said. “If he is chasing shadows, eventually he or Gwen will realize there’s no one there and they’ll come home.”

  Blake ran a hand through his hair. “Not sure if that makes me feel better. I sure as hell don’t want to think there’s someone out there after them. And the thought of my sister falling for a guy chasing shadows…”

  “Are you sure you’re just not worried about your sister falling for anyone? Even Neil?”

  Blake moved away from the window to his desk. “Maybe when she was twenty. Now I’d love nothing better than for her to find someone.” A picture of Sam and Eddie sat on his desk and he pulled it closer. I’m a lucky man.

  “Someone stable.”

  “Yeah.” Even on a normal day Blake wasn’t a thousand percent sure that man was Neil. He hated that he thought that way.

  “Hmm. When will you hear from him again?”

  “Dean said we’d hear something tomorrow. Then again in three days.”

  “That’s a long time.”

  “It’s forever. Dean said they’re keeping the electrocuted neighbors case open as a homicide. They have more questions for Gwen and Neil and they’re not happy they left.”<
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  “They don’t suspect them, do they?”

  “Jim and Dean don’t. Can’t say the same for their colleagues.”

  “It keeps getting worse,” Sam said.

  “It would help if we found the trace he talked about. Dillon hasn’t found anything.”

  “Dillon doesn’t have Neil’s background in intelligence. Wasn’t he special ops or something like that?”

  Once again, Blake was reminded of just how smart his wife was. “He was.”

  “Hmm.” Samantha sighed. “Want my opinion?”

  Blake found a smile on his lips. “I can’t believe I’ve escaped it.”

  She laughed. “Remind me to slap you for that later.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  “I think,” she began, “that you need to give Neil the next four days. If you went looking for him now and led whoever might be out there to him you’d never forgive yourself. If there isn’t anyone out there, then I think that will be evident by day four. Neil would never hurt Gwen. And Gwen…well, we all know how she feels about Neil.”

  “I sure as hell didn’t.”

  “I tried pointing it out to you after Carter and Eliza hooked up. You, my Duke, just don’t listen.”

  “I listen.” Maybe not as much as he did before he had a wife.

  “Really?”

  Sam took some of the daily burden of life off his shoulders. Even now, just talking to her helped calm him down like no one else could.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  One minute he was broken up about Gwen liking Neil and the next…What?

  “What did you say?”

  Sam started laughing. “Wasn’t the stomach flu after all.”

  Good thing he was sitting. “Pregnant? You sure?”

  “Been there. Done that.”

  They’d been less than careful. Tempting pregnancy more than really planning one. But Eddie was toddling and they both wanted more kids. “Oh, Sam. I love you.” He couldn’t stop smiling.

  “I love you, too. I thought I’d wait to tell you when I saw you again…but we both know I’m not good at keeping the pregnancy thing to myself.”

  “Want me to fly home?”

  “Don’t be silly. And I’m not getting on a plane until my stomach settles. I’ll wait to say anything to Eddie until we’re together.”

  Blake leaned back in his high back leather chair. “Eddie’s going to be a wonderful big brother.”

  “If he’s anything like his dad.”

  “I’m smiling…damn happy to know I’m going to be a dad again…and feeling guilty all at the same time.”

  “Stop, Blake. If Gwen’s in any real danger there is no one better to protect her than Neil. If there isn’t anyone out there…then at least she and Neil can hammer out the sultry come-hither looks they’ve been sending each other for the last year.”

  “I never saw any come-hither anything.” The thought of his sister as a sexual person made his skin crawl.

  “You weren’t looking.”

  “That’s a blessing.”

  “Poor Blake. If Neil knocks her up I’ll have to remind you that he’s the weapons expert.”

  “Doesn’t mean I won’t insist on a shotgun wedding.”

  “Neil’s an honorable man. He’s not that guy.”

  “He is if he’s knocking up my little sister.”

  Samantha laughed so hard she could hardly talk. “Your little sister is older than me.”

  Blake growled. “Can we talk about something else now?”

  Sam kept laughing. “OK, how about morning sickness. Remember how much fun that was? And diapers. Oh, joy…the fun we get to have.”

  Blake found his smile and kept it.

  Chapter Twenty

  The air was a lot cooler in the mountains than it was on the desert floor of Nevada and Utah. Neil kept an eye on the clouds. The last thing they needed was bad weather. The tent was dime store quality and meant for perfect weather conditions and not for a deluge of rain. He’d watched the weather report at the hotel, but that was several hundred miles away, and the mountains were known to have their own weather patterns.

  Gwen had fallen silent after he’d revealed some of his past. He was surprised at how often she thought logically and came to some of the same conclusions he did.

  He’d thought briefly about Raven having a brother…that or terrorist scum like he had been was gunning after them. Neil dismissed the idea almost immediately. Terrorists were great at taking out big targets and creating mass panic. One-on-one wasn’t their style. Not enough airplay on the global platform for their taste.

  As for Rick or Mickey holding a grudge…Mickey was out of reach. Probably deep inside again and halfway across the globe. Rick was the one who came to him. Weren’t they both working to find the one responsible for Billy’s death?

  Neil knew there was the slight possibility that Rick or Mickey could harbor an issue with him. Billy didn’t take the shot and Neil knew he didn’t make the call. Both outcomes might make Billy or himself a target with the other guys.

  Neil wanted to think longer, work through every possible angle before he gave his cards to anyone. Even Rick.

  Neil told himself he hadn’t called Rick the minute his plans changed because he needed to work things out alone. Neil worked solo now. No one else was on his team to depend on. No one else to get killed.

  His eyes traveled beyond the spot Gwen had disappeared behind to find some privacy in the woods.

  “You’re not solo, Mac,” he told himself. There was someone he cared about depending on him. In harm’s way because of him. I’m not solo at all. Only this time when the mission was completed they would both walk away.

  He kicked away a few rocks that would make it difficult to relax inside the tent before returning to the car to gather their things. A couple of nights camping in the middle of nowhere with Gwen. Could be worse. He thought of her the night before. He’d fantasized about her more times than he could count. Never did he picture her as responsive as she’d been. He’d made love to his share of women, some he quickly forgot, which probably made him all kinds of a bastard. There were a few he remembered with fondness. But none had left him feeling empty inside when they were gone.

  Gwen would change that. He knew that from the beginning. His emotions were involved before he ever touched her. That made his mission even more dangerous. The one after them knew it and would exploit it.

  The best thing for Neil to do was grasp the situation with both hands, solidify it, and deal. Once Gwen sat in the ivory tower, he could nail the mother shut and move on.

  A twig behind him snapped. His body tensed.

  “Setting up the tent?”

  Neil sighed. Dropped his hand that reached for his weapon on impulse. He’d pulled a gun on Gwen once. Damn if he’d let it happen again. There was no one out there except them and the deer. “Yeah.”

  He emptied the contents of the bag onto the ground and lined up the poles for the tent.

  “It’s beautiful up here. Have you been before?”

  “Been a few years, but yeah.”

  “It’s so quiet. Even more than the desert.”

  Neil pulled the deep scent of the pines into his nose. “The highway noise travels for miles in the desert. Up here, the forest muddles the sound.” He closed his eyes and listened. He moved his face away from the sun. “Listen.”

  He opened his eyes to find Gwen looking at him with a smile. He walked to her and turned her toward the east. “Close your eyes.”

  “What is it?”

  “Shhh.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to her ear. “Take a few slow deep breaths and just listen.”

  Gwen followed his instructions and he joined her in silence. When he closed his eyes, the world of sound opened like a flood.

  “Now…what do you hear?”

  “Birds. Maybe a chipmunk chirping.”

  He heard those too. “What else?” He watched her now, the smile on her face
as she listened to the sounds of the forest.

  “The wind in the top of the trees…and something else.” She opened her eyes and pointed east. “Over there.”

  “A stream if it’s close, a river if it’s farther away.”

  “How lovely. We should find it.”

  He rubbed the coolness from her arms. “Tomorrow. We need to set up camp before dark.”

  “All right.”

  “But first. Close your eyes again and tell me what you don’t hear.”

  Her eyes drifted close again. Neil glanced at the ground at his feet and saw a twig.

  “No cars. No distant horns or sounds of people other than us. No air traffic. Nothing mechanical.”

  Neil lifted his foot over the branch and waited. “Anything else?”

  She hesitated and started to shake her head.

  Neil snapped the twig and she jumped.

  “What was that?”

  She watched him now, hand to her chest.

  “Just a branch. But you heard it because you removed one of your senses. Listen to how I walk, memorize it. And if anyone else approaches you, you’ll know it before you see them.”

  Gwen turned and circled his waist with her arms. “No one would dare get close to me with you around, Neil.”

  “You can never be too careful out here.”

  She grinned, lifted on her tiptoes and kissed him briefly, and settled back to her feet. “I’ll practice. Now, why don’t you set up the tent while I find some firewood?”

  He kept an eye on her as she foraged about, gathering wood. It didn’t take him long to construct the tent and set up their sleeping gear.

  “I’ve never camped,” Gwen said from several yards away. “Not once. The closest I came was when I was twelve. I had a friend spend the night and we ended up sleeping on the lounge chairs on the patio outside my room at Albany.”

  He smirked. “Doesn’t count.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” She dumped a few larger logs into her pile and moved away to gather more branches. “There are a few cabins on the property back home. I used to escape to them when I needed time to myself. My mother always wanted people around. There were guests at Albany continually when my father was alive and I often sought refuge in the cabins.”

  “Did you get along with your father?” He knew Blake didn’t.