Texas…Now and Forever

by Merline Lovelace

  They reached the gas station a good ten minutes ahead of the specified time. Leaving the keys in the ignition, she climbed out and waited for Luke to come around to join her.

  “Can you see the booth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Describe it to me.”

  “It’s an open cubicle, with graffiti scrawled all over it. There’s no note stuck to it. No note anywhere.”

  “Go stand on the other side of the truck.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to see if the phone’s working.”

  “You think Frank might have rigged it with explosives?”

  “No, I don’t. I think he’s going to call in a few minutes with more instructions. Just to be safe, though, I want to check out the phone before it rings. Tell me when you’re behind the truck.”

  Haley didn’t move. “No, Luke.”

  “No what?”

  “I won’t let you take any more risks.” Sick with fear for both him and her baby, she fought to keep her voice level. “I shouldn’t have come running to you the way I did. I panicked and didn’t think things through. I’m the one Frank contacted. I’m the one he wants revenge on. He won’t hurt Lena or you if he has me.”

  “Yeah, well, what Frank wants and what he gets are—”

  “Listen to me, Luke. I’m telling you there’s been a change in tactics. If Frank is planning a snatch and run, as you and Tyler and the others seem to think, I intend to let him know right up front that I’ll go with him voluntarily. My only condition is that he leaves Lena with you.”

  She expected him to get all macho and blast her with a dozen different arguments. Instead, he folded his arms and let the summer night swirl hot and dusty around them.

  “Just out of curiosity, when did you decide on this change in tactics?”

  “A while ago.”

  “When, Haley?”

  “Look, it’s been building inside me for the past couple days, okay? The guilt. The fear. The worry that I’ve dragged you into the same pit my family got dragged into. I can’t do it, Luke. I can’t let Frank destroy you, too.”

  “It’s been building inside me, too,” he said quietly. “The guilt because I wasn’t there when you and Lena needed me. The fear that I can’t protect either of you. The worry that I might lose you again.”

  Trailing his knuckles along her cheek until he found her nape, he pulled her forward.

  “I’m breaking all the rules here, Haley. This isn’t the time or the place for this. But yesterday morning, when it didn’t seem to matter to you that I might never fully regain my sight, it made me think… Made me realize… Oh, hell, I’m not any good at this.”

  Haley’s pulse tripped. For a moment the dust-streaked glass of the phone booth blurred. The stars faded. The night sky became a backdrop. Her entire being focused on the man standing in front of her.

  “Any good at what?”

  “Telling a woman that I love her.”

  When she didn’t answer, a small, wry smile played at one corner of his mouth.

  “Like I said, I’m breaking all the rules here. The last thing I should do is add to your stress. I don’t expect you to feel the same. Nor do I expect you to think about this right now. I just want you to understand why I can’t step aside and let you do this alone.”

  She stood silent for so long, Luke figured she’d taken him at his word and decided not to think about anything but Lena.

  “You’re right,” she said at last. “This isn’t the time or the place for this, but we might not get another. I love you, too, Luke. I’ve loved you since I was old enough to figure out what Barbie and Ken were up to when they closed the door to her Dream House. You don’t have any idea how many times I padded my bras to get you to notice me. Or how many nights I went to bed almost screaming with frustration when you didn’t.”

  “I noticed, sweetheart. Believe me, I noticed. But you were Ricky’s sister and I…”

  “I know. You wouldn’t cross the line. I did, though. Too many times. I ached for you so much I had to steal one more hour with you that awful night on the lake. I was the one who suggested we go out back at the Saddlebag. I was thrilled when I found out I was pregnant. Knowing my baby would have some of you in her made her doubly precious to me.”

  Luke was humbled. Completely humbled. Cupping her cheeks, he bent to express his feelings in the surest, most direct way he knew. The phone jangled before he could do more than graze her lips.

  Cursing, he thrust Haley away. “Get around to the other side of the truck.”

  “Luke, wait!”

  Ignoring her cry, he followed the sound and wrapped his fist around the receiver. “Tell me when you’re in position.”

  The phone shrilled again.

  “Move, Haley. If it rings too many times, he’ll get suspicious.”

  He heard her take one step, then hesitate. Another jangle cut through the night.

  “Move!”

  She stomped around to the far side of the pickup, and Luke snatched up the receiver.

  Luke made the last leg of their journey blind. Literally and figuratively. The road Del Brio directed them to was another two-lane dirt track, with no streetlights to provide enough contrast for Luke to see so much as a shadow. And this time they hadn’t been given any instructions about how far to go. They could keep going, Del Brio had sneered, until they were stopped.

  The first clue that they were approaching the rendezvous point came via secure radio/phone net.

  “The military LanSat network picked up three stationary vehicles,” Colonel Westin reported crisply. “They’re in a triangular vector approximately five miles north, six west, and five-point-four south-southeast of your present position.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Given your heading and the condition of the road, we estimate you’ll make contact with the vehicle to the west of you in about ten minutes.”

  “Ten minutes. Got it.”

  “We’ll be just over the horizon. Good hunting, Luke.”

  “Thanks, Colonel.”

  Snapping the lid down on the phone, he tucked it in his shirt pocket and activated the miniaturized scanner on his left wrist. The titanium case vibrated violently as the radar wave it sent out bounced off the dash. His nerves dancing in response, Luke raised his arm and aimed the scanner at the windshield. The vibrations died instantly.

  Satisfied that there was nothing out there for the radar to pick up, he reached into his boot and slid the snubnose .38 from its ankle holster. Staring into the darkness, he released the cylinder, ran his thumb around the six chambered rounds and closed the weapon with a small snick. He would have preferred the SIG Sauer 9 mm Tyler had fitted with a special scope. After testing several different ways to conceal it, however, he’d opted for the smaller Smith & Wesson.

  “We should make contact within the next few minutes.”

  Her response was quick and gritty. “I’m ready.”

  “We’re a team, remember? We’re in this together. I want you to promise you won’t deliberately place yourself in the line of fire.”

  “Luke, I—”

  “I can’t risk a shot unless I know you and the baby are clear,” he said fiercely. “Don’t give him any more advantage than he already has. Promise me, Haley.”

  “All right, all right! I promise.”

  That pledge thundered in Haley’s mind when she topped a small rise a few moments later and drove smack into a blaze of light. With a smothered oath, she stomped on the brakes.

  Luke was right there beside her, calm but urgent. “What do you see?”

  “There’s a vehicle parked smack in the middle of the road approximately twenty yards ahead. Its high beams are on. The damned things almost blinded me.”

  “Just maneuver the bastard in front of those lights,” Luke said on a note of triumph, “and I won’t need any high-tech scanners to get him in my sights.”

  His utter confidence gave Haley a badly needed shot in the arm. Maybe, just mayb
e, they might pull this off. She was shaking when she reached behind her for the ransom money, but not completely mindless with terror.

  “Remember the drill,” Luke cautioned as she tugged on the door handle. “We get out together. You stay left. I stay right. Don’t take one step until Del Brio produces Lena.”

  “I’ve got it.”

  “Here we go.”

  Shouldering open the heavy, reinforced door, Haley emerged into the hot Texas night. She heard the passenger door slam shut, but couldn’t see a thing in the glare of the headlights. The thought flashed into her head that she and Luke had reversed roles. The blazing lights blinded her, but would provide just the contrast he needed to make out Frank’s silhouette. Assuming they could get Del Brio to step in front of his car, that was.

  “Frank?” Holding up her arm to shield her eyes, she squinted at the other vehicle. “Frank, are you there?”

  His chuckle floated to her through the night. “I’m here, babe.”

  The sound of his voice twisted Haley into knots.

  “I see you brought the money,” he called. “Callaghan, too. Keep your hands where I can see ’em, both of you.” His laugh twisted into a sneer. “Not that I need to worry about you, do I, Callaghan? I ought to blow a hole in you right now, you useless son of a bitch, and put you out of your misery.”

  Afraid he’d do just that, Haley rushed into an explanation. “Luke came along because of Lena. He provided the money for her ransom. He just wants to make sure she’s okay.”

  “That right, rich boy? You just want to check on your brat? Well, I guess I can let you have a look.” Snickering at his cruel joke, he raised his voice. “Bring her out, Erica.”

  A healthy chunk of Haley’s hate for Frank Del Brio took an instant detour into fury.

  Erica. He could only mean Erica Clawson.

  Haley had worked with the short, carrot-topped waitress for more than a year. Although she hadn’t gotten close to anyone except Ginger Walton, the one friend she’d made as Daisy Parker, she’d fretted when Erica gushed about her new boyfriend, yet came to work with bruises and, once, a black eye.

  She tried to coax the younger woman into talking to a counselor, but didn’t want to get too close, reveal too much of herself. Then Lena had been kidnapped from Flynt’s ranch, and Erica Clawson dropped instantly from Haley’s list of worries.

  Dammit all to hell! Why hadn’t she seen beyond the waitress’s appearance? Why hadn’t she connected Erica’s mysterious, ready-fisted boyfriend with Frank Del Brio? The FBI hadn’t made the connection, either, but that didn’t lessen Haley’s biting self-disgust.

  “You want to see your kid, Callaghan?” Frank’s laughter rolled through the night again. “Here she is.”

  A lump the size of a Texas armadillo lodged in Haley’s throat as a tall, muscled figure moved into the spear of lights. She didn’t have to fake her quaver of fear when she called out to Del Brio.

  “We can’t see anything from here. You’re just a dark blur.”

  “Come take a look. Bring the money.”

  She took one step, heard Luke’s hiss and stopped. “No. I’m not delivering the money until I know Lena’s all right. Bring her halfway, Frank, then step back.”

  “Aw, babe. It’s breakin’ my heart you don’t trust me.”

  The words came out playfully enough, but Del Brio’s real feelings broke through as he picked up the carrier and sauntered forward.

  “Just like it broke my heart you didn’t trust me all those years ago when we were engaged. I would’ve taken care of you, Haley. I would have covered for your father. Why did you run? Why did you leave me thinking you were dead?”

  She could feel his anger. It swept across the blaze of lights in palpable waves. She could feel the hurt, as well. In his own sick way, he’d loved her. Her flesh crawled when he made it plain he still did.

  “I’ve been wondering what you did with your ring,” he called.

  “I lost it in the lake, Frank.” No way she was going to tip him over the edge by admitting she’d thrown it as far away as she could. Not when she was this close to Lena.

  “Never mind. I’ll buy you another one. Bigger. Flashier. This time we’ll do it right, Haley. When I put it on your finger, you won’t want to take it off.”

  “Frank!”

  Erica Clawson’s shriek split the night.

  “What’s this crap about putting a ring on that bitch’s finger? You promised to marry me!”

  Erica charged out of the darkness and was met with a lash of scorn.

  “Don’t be stupid. Why would I marry a slut like you? You spread your legs for me, you’ll spread ’em for anyone in pants.”

  “Me? You’re calling me a slut?” Her outrage piled on top of anguish. “What about Princess Daisy here? She’s the one who spread her legs. You’re holding the evidence of that in your hand.”

  “Haley made a mistake,” Frank snarled. “You, you’re nothing but a tramp.”

  “Tramp! I’ll show you tramp!”

  Her hands curled into claws, Erica launched herself at Frank. He whirled to meet her, one arm swinging the baby carrier in a wide arc, the aiming a dark shape that could only be a gun at Erica’s heart.

  Haley didn’t stop to think. Didn’t give a single consideration as to whether she was putting herself between Frank and Luke. She hurtled forward at the same instant Del Brio fired.

  Knocking the carrier out of his hand, Haley came down on top of the hard plastic. With a small, stunned cry, Erica came down on top of her. Frantically, Haley stooped over the carrier, shielding it with her body.

  She heard more shots. Two. Three.

  A hoarse shout.

  Someone called her name.

  Drenched in Erica’s blood, hunched like a crab over her baby, her ears ringing from the shock waves of Frank’s pistol fired at close range, she prayed that someone was Luke.

  It wasn’t.

  It was her brother.

  She recognized his voice finally, after his frantic hands pulled Erica’s lifeless body away and the reverberations in her ear died enough for her to hear.

  “Haley! Dear God, Haley, are you hurt?”

  Dazed, she abandoned her protective crouch and raised up on her knees. Her stomach lurched when she spotted Frank Del Brio lying facedown only a few yards from Erica’s lifeless body. It took another dive when she looked into the face of the man standing over her.

  “Ricky?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” Hunkering beside her, he gathered her into his arms. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d lost both you and Lena.”

  Lena! Dear God, Lena!

  Only then did a series of indignant squalls pierce the clanging in Haley’s ears. Shoving out of her brother’s arms, she righted the overturned carrier.

  Her face brick-red, Lena waved her fists in the air and let everyone in south Texas know that she was very unhappy. Haley’s eyes brimmed with tears as she fumbled with the straps, pulled her baby from the carrier and dropped a kiss on her curls. Lena tight in her arms, Haley swung to face her brother.

  “Ricky, where’s Luke?”

  The frantic question no sooner tumbled out than Luke himself answered.

  “I’m right here.”

  He stepped out of the darkness into the arc thrown by the headlights. With a small cry, Haley rushed to him. The acrid stench of gunpowder clung to his shirt. She had no idea whether he’d fired the shots that brought Frank down, and didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that he was safe. He and Lena.

  The baby’s squalls didn’t lessen in either volume or intensity as Haley held out the bundle of flailing arms and legs.

  “Meet your daughter, Mr. Callaghan.”

  Epilogue

  It was a perfect day for a wedding, Texas-style.

  The summer sun floated in a cloudless sky. Heat rose in shimmering waves from the manicured fair-ways of the Lone Star Country Club. The assembled guests weren’t worried about patches of unsightly sweat
staining their pastel tea gowns and dove-gray morning coats, however. Giant fans discreetly positioned behind hedges blew cool, refreshing mists.

  Most of Mission Creek, including the influential Carsons and Wainwrights, had gathered under the bright sun. Old feuds forgotten, the long-divided families intermingled in row after row of white-skirted chairs. Colonel Phillip Westin sat in the front row, stiff-backed and square-jawed in his dress blues, his medals gleaming in the sun. Next to the colonel sat Teresa Chavez, who picked her husband’s pocket for a dry handkerchief to replace the one she’d already soaked.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she murmured, dabbing her eyes. “All these roses.”

  It seemed as though every hothouse in south Texas had been raided. Garlands of yellow roses were draped between the rows. White netting entwined with thousands of the same fragrant blossoms festooned the patio where the reception would be held. Hundreds more climbed the arch that had been hastily constructed over the tee box of hole number nine.

  Five men stood under the arch. Tall. Tanned. Shoulder to shoulder. At their feet, squarely in the center of the raised platform, was a baby carrier. A toddler with a lacy elastic headband holding back her black curls waved her arms and legs and blew happy bubbles into the air.

  Hooking a hand in his white tie, one of Lena’s honorary uncles glanced around the elegant scene and grinned. “I still can’t believe your woman decided to make things official here on the golf course, Callaghan.”

  “Believe it, Murdoch.”

  “We heard you had to sign a promise in blood that you’d show this time,” Spence drawled.

  “I would’ve used a pen,” Luke tossed back, “but Lena had just tried out her new back teeth on my finger. The ink ran a little red.”

  “Well, I think holding the ceremony out here makes perfect sense,” Flynt murmured. “This is where it all began.”

  Not quite, Luke thought. It began years ago, with a gawky teenager who blossomed into a lush, beautiful woman and a hardheaded Texan who put friendship ahead of his growing hunger.

  Luke didn’t turn his head or try to focus the blurred images that were becoming a little sharper each day. He knew his best man stood beside him, as he’d stood beside him so many times in the past.