by Jane Toombs
Talal had also been concerned about the situation and said he’d contact his great-uncle, Kholi’s king, about Steve’s information.
While talking to Mikel, though Steve hadn’t meant to bring it up so soon, he’d mentioned the disappearance of Victoria’s sister when she was thirteen, describing her and the .45 that had vanished with her. Maybe nothing would come of it, but Mikel was a person who tended to go on picking at a puzzle until he worked out the solution.
“Tell me where the hell you are,” Mikel had kept insisting. “If anything happens with Malengo, we don’t have a clue to your whereabouts.”
“Nothing will happen. We’re safe here.”
“Come on, man. Hang it up.” Mikel was nothing if not blunt. “You know damn well no one is ever safe.”
Unfortunately that had proven true more times than Steve wanted to remember, so he’d finally given Mikel a general idea of the cabin’s location.
Talking with Mikel had unsettled him, making him worry about just how safe they were in the cabin. On the other hand, he’d been very very careful and there was really no way Malengo could trace him even to this general area, much less pinpoint the cabin.
As if reading his thoughts, Victoria said, “I feel so safe up here in the mountains. It’s a whole different world.”
“You are safe.” He spoke so vehemently. she stared at him in surprise.
“We’re all safe,” he added more calmly. “Perfectly safe.”
But he was no longer as sure about that as he had been.
Chapter Nine
When they got back to the cabin, Willa was sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs in front. Joker bounded up to her and laid his head on her knee to be stroked. Evidently with him it was once a friend, always a friend, Victoria thought.
“Brought you some fresh eggs,” Willa said. “Fellow who raises chickens paid me for one of my salves in eggs. Can’t use so dang many.”
“Thanks,” Victoria told her. “We’re all out.” Victoria was pretty much all worn out after that climb, but added, “Please come in and have something to drink.”
“Tea’d suit me,” Willa acknowledged, eyeing Steve.
He smiled at her. “A neighbor who arrives bearing fresh eggs is always welcome. I’ll even fix the tea.”
Willa’s expression remained guarded as she said, “Right kind of you. Never did bring you any eggs before in the three years you been coming up here. Wasn’t sure you’d want them.”
Victoria smiled to herself. Obviously Willa wasn’t yet sure she could trust the new, mellower Steve. How thoughtful of him to offer to fix the tea so she could take care of changing Heidi.
When Steve opened the cabin’s front door, Bevins scooted out past him and dived into the underbrush. “Guess Joker’s not the only escape artist in the family,” he said. Then he shook his head slightly, looking momentarily confused.
Because he’d said “family?” Victoria had felt a frisson race along her spine at the word. She’d never expected to hear him use it referring to them, except as a joke. This had slipped out involuntarily, she was sure.
“Joker won’t let Bevins get far,” Victoria said. The dog was already watching as the kitten eyed him from under a bush.
Inside, Victoria took care of the baby’s needs and was cuddling her when Willa said, “Think she’d mind if I held her?”
“Let’s try it and see,” Victoria told her.
“Best wash my hands first. Been handling them eggs.” When she finished, Willa sat in the rocker and Victoria deposited Heidi in her arms.
It was clear from the way she positioned Heidi that this wasn’t the first infant Willa had held. The baby seemed perfectly content with where she was.
“Raised up a couple of my brother’s young ’uns,” Willa said. “Turned out pretty good, they did.”
Steve, occupied in the kitchen, said, “One of them wouldn’t be Senator Hoover Hawkins, would he?”
Willa grinned. “Smart as a whip, that boy, and fair-to-middling honest, too, once he found he couldn’t con me. Course that don’t mean he won’t try it with the voters.”
Steve chuckled. “I’d hate to try to con you, Willa.”
“Oh, I reckon you’re honest enough,” she said. “Just hard to get at.”
He raised his eyebrows.
Instead of explaining her remark, Willa focused on Victoria, who was setting the table.
“Victoria, now, she don’t hide nothing. Good way to get hurt if you don’t take care.”
Steve understood from the severe look Willa cast his way that the words were aimed at him. He stared back at her. Didn’t the old woman understand he was the last person she needed to warn? He’d never hurt Victoria.
“Tea’s ready,” he announced.
“Mr. Sandman’s come for Miss Heidi,” Willa said. “I’ll just pop her in the cradle.”
Along with the tea, Steve set out a plate with squares of rice cereal bonded together with marshmallows and butter. When Victoria had made it yesterday, after complaining that with no eggs she couldn’t concoct any other kind of dessert, the first bite had taken him back to his childhood. He figured his stepmother had first won his trust with the sweet rice cereal squares.
“Favorite of mine,” he said now as he took one.
“Coddling him, are you?” Willa asked Victoria.
To Steve’s delight, Victoria blushed. He knew it had nothing to do with food but with the other pleasures they’d shared. Ones he meant to share with her again. Soon.
Willa was right about one thing, though—Victoria was an open book. Which was one of the things he liked about her. If Kim had been more like Victoria...
He quashed that thought firmly. Kim had been what she was and now she was gone. He might not be grief-stricken, but he was sorry she was dead.
“Since you did such a good job with Hoover,” he said to Willa, “maybe you should be Heidi’s honorary grandmother.” As he spoke, he realized he’d made a decision he hadn’t been aware of until this moment. He was not going to give up Kim’s baby. Never to Malengo, but not to anyone else, either. Kim had given Heidi to him and he meant to keep her. Permanently.
Later, as Willa left, Joker brushed past her, coming in through the door, once again holding the kitten in his mouth by the scruff. He deposited Bevins on the hearth cushion and trotted back out again, with the air of one who’s done his duty.
“The dog’s escorting Willa home,” Steve said as he closed the door. “He has his own priorities about what needs doing.”
“Just like the rest of us,” Victoria said. “My agenda, at this moment, includes taking a nap and nothing else.”
It took some effort for Steve not to say, “Great, we’ll nap together.” But he knew how fatiguing the hike down and back up the mountain could be, especially for someone who hadn’t done it before. If they lay down together, there’d be damn little napping done, and she needed to rest.
He nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll hold down the fort.”
“Protecting the fort does seem to be your agenda,” she said, before turning away and entering the bedroom.
Referring to his handgun, no doubt. But then she had no idea what he did or that, even when he wasn’t on a case, how the gun sometimes saved his butt. Since he’d picked up another thriller in the general store, he settled down to read it, almost immediately attracting Bevins onto his lap.
“I take it you believe humans exist solely for your benefit,” he muttered, fondling the kitten behind its ears. Bevins purred.
A dog, yes—he’d always liked dogs—but he’d never expected to grow fond of a cat. Or a newborn baby—one that wasn’t even his. Or the baby’s red-haired caretaker. Parting from Victoria wasn’t going to be as painless as he’d originally believed.
Again Victoria woke thinking someone had called her name. Since it wasn’t dark, she immediately realized where she was, swung her feet off the bed and stood up. In the main room, Heidi was awake but not crying, waving her fists and burbl
ing. Steve sat in a chair reading, with Bevins on his knee and they both looked up at her.
“Did you call me?” she asked.
He shook his head.
Something scratched at the front door. “Joker’s home,” she said, and let the dog in. He trotted over, peered in at the baby, then curled up on the floor beside the cradle.
“If you didn’t call me, I must have been dreaming again,” Victoria said. She reached inwardly for the dream but it was gone, the only shard remaining a faint recollection it had been a hospital dream. About Kim.
Only a dream. Alice, the psychologist, would probably tell her the reason she kept feeling she’d been called was unfinished business nagging at her through her dreams. The idea made her uneasy and she set it aside.
Almost immediately she dredged up a comment Willa had made today, and that triggered a memory of something else she’d mentioned at their first meeting. Willa had said Steve had been coming to the cabin for three years and yet she hadn’t known he was married till Victoria told her at that first meeting.
“You must never have brought Kim to the cabin,” she said.
He frowned. “Didn’t I say you were the first person I ever hauled up here with me?”
“Yes, but I didn’t know then how long you’d been coming to the cabin.”
Silence. Had he retreated into noncommunication again? Willa’s comment about hard to get at was right on.
“Kim and I had been growing apart for a long time,” he said finally.
Which made Victoria wonder if Kim’s getting pregnant had been a failed last-ditch attempt to salvage the marriage. Unfortunately, a baby couldn’t unite a couple who had no other ties.
“You don’t talk about Kim much,” she said.
“No.”
Back to monosyllables.
“It might be better if you—” she began before he cut her off.
“I damn well don’t care to.” The book he’d set on his knee tumbled to the floor. Disturbed, Bevins jumped down and went to investigate his food dish. Joker’s head came up, his attention on Steve.
Steve rose and, without another word, headed for the back door, trailed by Joker. They both went out. Heidi began to whimper.
“I don’t blame you,” Victoria told the baby as she lifted her from the cradle. “Your father in a snit isn’t the most wonderful company in the world.”
As she was changing diapers, Victoria noticed the day had suddenly gotten much darker. A far-off rumble of thunder told her the reason. Mark up a point for know-it-all Steve, she thought grumpily.
What had she done that was so wrong? Merely mentioned Kim. Settling into the rocker to feed Heidi, Victoria saw Bevins dash across the room and dive under the armoire. Had the cat been chasing something ? If it was a mouse and Bevins actually caught it, she hoped the kitten would take it up to the loft and drop it in Steve’s bed. Serve him right to bed down with a mouse.
She certainly didn’t intend to be in that bed tonight! A flash of lightning lit the cabin’s interior with a greenish glow. Thunder crackled ominously close. As rain began to plash against the windows, the back door burst open to admit Steve and Joker.
Victoria wasn’t afraid of thunderstorms. Not exactly, anyway. Still, she was glad she wasn’t alone up here in this mountain cabin experiencing this one.
Joker came over to sniff at Heidi’s toes. Apparently satisfied Victoria wasn’t harming her, he trotted over to the armoire and lay down with his nose close to the small space underneath where the kitten still was. At least Victoria hadn’t seen him come out.
“Bevins is catching a mouse,” she informed Steve, her words intended to show him that she, at least, was above using silence as a weapon.
“Fat chance. They’re as big as he is. If he’s under that hulking piece of furniture it’s because he’s intimidated by thunder.”
“He is not!”
Steve shrugged and went into the kitchen. “Feel like saying to hell with cholesterol and having scrambled eggs and bacon for supper?” he asked. “I’ll be the chef.”
She was tempted to tell him that he could lay plaque along the insides of his arteries if he wanted to but she didn’t intend to do anything of the sort. Unfortunately, her mouth was already watering at the mere idea. She hadn’t eaten bacon and eggs since forever.
Besides, he was offering his own version of an apology. What was the point in denying herself what would be a real treat?
“Just this once,” she said.
“You won’t be sorry.” She saw by the lightning flash he was grinning at her.
How was it possible his grin could send a trickle of desire along her nerve endings? She lay Heidi up against her shoulder, doing her best to concentrate on the baby and ignore him.
Heidi’s loud burp brought an admiring “Atta girl” from Steve.
Without warning the storm’s intensity increased, wind howling, rain pounding against the cabin, continuous lightning, shattering rolls of thunder. Victoria sprang up from the rocker and, holding tightly to the baby, ran into the kitchen. To Steve.
He put his arms around both her and Heidi, holding them, keeping them safe. Intellectually, Victoria knew very well his arms couldn’t actually keep away possible danger from the storm, but emotionally she felt very much protected.
As the storm’s fury abated, she eased away from him, embarrassed at what she saw as her lack of courage. “I’ve never been afraid of a storm before,” she said.
“You probably never experienced one in the mountains. They can be awesome.”
Somewhat comforted by his assurance that this one was a granddaddy of storms, she returned to the rocker with Heidi who hadn’t so much as whimpered the entire time. As she sat down, something small ran across the floor in front of her with Bevins in hot pursuit, Joker bringing up the rear.
If that was a mouse, she was right—but so was Steve. It was almost as big as the kitten.
“Have to admit that cat’s heart’s in the right place,” Steve said as they both watched the race until all three animals plunged though the open door of the shed.
Not long afterward, Bevins and Joker reappeared. The kitten looked unbearably smug but the dog was the one licking his chops.
“Did you get him, old buddy?” Steve asked Joker.
“We’ll never know for sure,” Victoria pointed out. “Maybe the mouse got away. For a while there I was hoping Bevins would deposit him in your bed.”
“In your place, I take it.”
“Something like that,” she admitted. “Why are you so prickly?”
“For the same reason you can be a nag.”
She bit her lip, thought it over and said, “Okay, so neither of us is perfect. Tell you what—I’ll try not to nag if you’ll make an effort not to go back into your precabin mode.”
“No mice in my bed?”
“I can’t speak for Bevins,” she said.
“Then I have nothing to worry about He’ll need to double his size before the mice have anything to fear from him.”
Joker sat in front of the rocker, head cocked, his attention fixed on Heidi, who offered him another smile.
“Joker—two, Steve and Victoria—zip,” Steve said. “Guess we’ll have to turn into dogs before we rate a smile from her.” He began hauling pans from the cupboard.
The late afternoon brightened as the storm passed by, leaving only a light rain in its wake. As Victoria rocked the baby, a contentment she’d never before experienced settled over her. Family. That’s what they were, at least for now, and she knew Steve felt it, too.
“Looks like we may get some moonlight later,” he said as he beat eggs into froth.
On the surface his words were innocuous enough but Victoria knew very well what he meant. Since they’d made love under the full moon, the moon belonged to them now and moonlight meant lovemaking. Anticipatory warmth settled low inside her and she smiled.
Her smile faded when she remembered the moon was on the wane. There wouldn’t be too ma
ny more nights before moon dark, just as their nights at the cabin were numbered, and soon the time would come for them to leave and return to reality.
She’d lose Steve and Heidi both. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them impatiently away. This was something she’d known from the beginning, so why was she obsessing over it?
You’re not in love with the man, and the baby is not yours, she told herself firmly. Take what you can and enjoy it, but remember it’s only temporary. On loan, so to speak.
Steve’s voice jolted her from her musing. “That dog responds to an amazing number of commands,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out a way to see if he understands ones for attack like ‘Sic ’em’ or ‘Go get ’em.’”
Joker, who’d lain down beside the rocker, lifted his head and stared at him.
“Look at that!” Steve said. “I think he recognized the words.”
Victoria frowned. “Do you need an attack dog for some reason?”
Steve shrugged. “You never know.”
“Up here?”
“Joker and I are working out what commands he knows, that’s all.”
Victoria got the distinct impression he was being evasive. “Is there something I ought to know about?” she asked. “Something you haven’t told me?”
“You know all you need to.”
Period, she supplied silently. She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again, determined not to be labeled a nag. She was overreacting. He surely wouldn’t have brought Heidi up here if there was any danger.
Seeing that Heidi was asleep, Victoria eased her into the cradle and crossed to the kitchen to set the table.
Later that evening, after the baby had been settled for the night, Steve tied Joker outside the cabin. When he came back in, he captured Bevins, saying, “It’s the shed for you, mouser.”
Returning from closing Bevins in, he said to Victoria, “The only question remaining is where to put you for the night?”
“Maybe I haven’t decided,” she said lightly.