After the Midnight Hour

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  He grinned at her polite manner. “Have all you want. That’s why I got an extra-large pizza.” He slid a second slice onto her plate.

  By the time Rachel finished her fourth piece of pizza she felt pleasantly full, and mellow from the glass of wine she had drunk.

  Jared grinned. “When you feel adventurous we’ll try my favorite. Canadian bacon and pineapple.”

  Rachel thought about the combination for a moment, then wrinkled her nose. “I am not sure I will ever be that adventurous. But I like this pepperoni.” She picked up her wineglass and sipped. “And this wine is very good.”

  He leaned back in his chair with one arm draped over the back. He looked about as relaxed as a jungle cat.

  “I wish I could figure you out,” he said finally.

  “I have never been complicated,” she replied demurely.

  Jared slowly shook his head. “Honey, you’ve complicated my life since day one. And I don’t do well with complications.”

  She felt a strange feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with the spicy food she’d been eating. Jared admitted he believed her, but she sensed he still had trouble with her story.

  “I am sorry that I cannot leave here and uncomplicate your life,” she murmured. “I understand why you feel that way, because complicated sounds exactly like my existence.”

  “That’s not what I meant. It’s just…” He paused and shook his head, as if whatever thoughts traveling through his head weren’t ones he wanted to speak out loud. “It’s just that I don’t know what to do with you.”

  “Maybe one day I will disappear completely and not return when evening falls,” she said with a flippancy she didn’t feel inside. “I can’t believe this will go on forever.”

  Darkness crept into his eyes. “Obviously there’s no hard-and-fast rules on curses. Although I would think there would be a loophole. A way to get out of it. Do you remember anything that was said that night?” He didn’t want to say which night and she didn’t need to ask. Some memories refused to fade with time.

  A furious Caleb shouting at her. Standing next to him was the woman who wanted him, her exotic beauty marred by the hatred on her face. She uttered vicious, obscene words that made Rachel’s skin crawl. Then pain exploded through her, fiery hot and unrelenting as the knife descended again and again. The woman had stood over her, her dark eyes shining with an unholy fire as she chanted in an unfamiliar language. As Rachel’s world turned black, the woman’s words reverberated inside her head and seemed to pull her up into a fiery maelstrom filled with unearthly shrieks and screams. To this day, she had no idea if the screams were her own or merely the imagination of a dying woman.

  She licked suddenly dry lips. “I have no idea what was said. I didn’t understand the language. All I heard was Caleb insisting he wanted me to suffer forever.”

  “Do you think it could have been Spanish? Or maybe Russian? I know there were Russians living in the area back then.”

  Rachel thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think it was either. It didn’t sound Spanish and definitely not Russian. We had Mexican workers on the land, so I heard their language a lot.”

  “Would Maya know where this woman came from?” He wondered why little had been said about the bruja. Had she held that much power?

  Rachel shook her head again. “She never said anything to me about it. She felt it was best I not remember everything that happened that night.”

  “But you still remember some things, don’t you?” he probed. “You can’t help but think back to that night. You must want to know why it happened.”

  Rachel picked up their plates and carried them to the sink. “I already know why it happened.”

  He straightened up. “Oh?”

  She carefully washed each dish and set it on the drainboard. After she dried her hands she turned around and leaned against the counter.

  “My husband murdered me for several reasons. One, I could not bear his touch. In his eyes, that was bad enough, but that I did not give him any children was a sin. I do not know how long the bruja lived here before I came. Many of the workers feared her and no one dared say anything against her. I think she enjoyed the way they cringed in terror.”

  “And she was the one who cursed you,” he said.

  Rachel nodded. Fractured memories from that night continued to play in her mind’s eye. She wished they could have been erased from her memory as easily as the bloodstains had been erased from her clothing. “I do not want to talk about it anymore.” She was proud of herself for not breaking down. She’d cried more than her share of tears decades ago. She’d vowed she wouldn’t cry again. To date, she’d kept that promise.

  “You’ve never talked about all of it.” His voice had lowered to a soft reassuring tone meant to silently urge a witness to talk. “Maybe you should.”

  Except Rachel had witnessed not only a murder, but her own murder at that. For self-protection, she had erected walls even someone as stubborn as Jared would have trouble breaking down.

  Her head whipped up. Deep violet eyes shot glittering sparks. “How many times have you been wounded, Jared?”

  He thought for a moment. “Shot twice, knifed a few times. Kicked in the ba—ah, I’ve had my share.”

  “But you didn’t die,” she stated. “You did not feel the breath leave your body, or feel your skin grow so cold you never thought you would be warm again, or experience the world around you receding to nothing. You did not descend into hell.”

  Jared’s eyes roamed over her. “I can’t imagine you even looking at hell, much less visiting it.”

  Rachel’s smile was a far cry from the sunny one she usually graced him with.

  “But you did not live here in the 1880s, did you? You have no idea what life was like then.”

  “So tell me.”

  Her brow furrowed. She looked as though she was thinking, but then shook her head. “For now I have said enough.” She carefully draped the dish towel over the rack near the sink. “Maya will be sorry she missed eating pizza.”

  He wanted to argue about her change of subject, but he had a pretty good idea she wouldn’t be diverted again. He’d already learned that Rachel Bingham had an incredibly stubborn streak inside that soft Southern belle exterior. The cop in him wanted the entire story, but the man hated to do anything that would hurt her further.

  The idea that someone could murder her in cold blood was appalling, even if the subject of murder was nothing new to him. He had no reason to push her about the night of her death. Did he expect her to readily tell him everything? Did he really think she would recount the experience in clinical detail, as if it had happened to someone else?

  Okay, there were times he wasn’t the smartest guy in the world. He should have known he had to tread carefully with her.

  “I wouldn’t worry. She had a double cheeseburger with everything on it, a large order of fries, onion rings and a big chocolate shake for lunch,” he told her. “Then she took a nap on the couch. The woman snores louder than the dog does.”

  A corner of Rachel’s mouth lifted upward. “Which proves you do like her.”

  Jared shrugged. “When the lady asks for a cheeseburger, you tend to honor her request.”

  Rachel looked off into the distance. “You had visitors today. Are they friends of yours?”

  “I guess you’d say that. They were two of the detectives I work with.”

  “I know women work as police officers because I have seen them on your television, but she is the first one I have seen in person. She is beautiful.”

  Jared grinned. “We won’t tell Goldilocks that. She’ll get a swelled head. It would only inflate her ego,” he clarified.

  “Her name is Goldilocks?” Rachel smiled. “Such as with the three bears?”

  “It’s just a nickname I call her. Her name is Celeste Dante. Her family has lived here for a few generations and racked up a nice bankroll. She could have been a real social butterfly, but she w
anted to be a cop. She and her partner investigate domestic crimes. Family abuse.” His tight jaw explained it well enough. “She may look like a cream puff, but she’s pure steel inside.”

  “You admire her a great deal,” Rachel said softly.

  “Yeah, I guess I do, but I wouldn’t say that to her or her husband. Celeste and Luc are used to my tough-guy image.”

  Rachel nodded. “What are you doing to the wall in the parlor?”

  “It’s called a family room now,” he reminded her. “I didn’t like the wall and decided I needed a new one.”

  She shook her head at his flippant answer. “But with it open, I would think you would worry that animals could come in at night.”

  “I covered it tightly with a plastic tarp,” he said. “It should keep any late-night visitors out.”

  Rachel started to say something else, but her gaze skated past the window as a faint flicker of light caught her attention.

  “What’s wrong?” He noticed the change in her expression.

  “I see light out in the barn.” She leaned over the counter to get a better look through the window. “Jared, there’s someone out there!”

  He was out of his chair in a flash to peer through the window. He muttered a curse and ran out the door.

  “Your gun!” she shouted after him, but he was already gone. “You cannot go out there unarmed!”

  Rachel ran back to the kitchen counter and leaned over it, almost pressing her face against the glass so she could see better. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Jared run toward the barn, with Harley on his heels. The young dog’s excited barks were clearly audible.

  “Be careful,” she whispered.

  Rachel rose up on to her tiptoes when she saw Jared stealthily approach the barn. He paused near the door, then moved faster as a faint, ominous light appeared. With the light, she could only see shadows, and worried that none of it looked good for Jared. When he disappeared into the barn she started to fear the worst. She was positive he shouldn’t be out there by himself, even with Harley.

  “No!” She pushed herself away from the counter and instinctively ran for the doorway. She had barely reached it when she was rudely bounced backward as if someone had roughly pushed her. She squealed with fright as she fell onto the floor with a painful thump. “Jared!” she cried, feeling helpless and frustrated at her inability to help him.

  As he ran for the barn, Jared heard muffled sounds from inside the building. He put a hand out toward Harley and was amazed when the dog immediately slowed down and stopped barking, but remained at his side.

  Jared mentally chastised himself for leaving his weapon inside the house. He felt the comforting weight of his knife in the sheath tucked inside his boot, and was relieved he wasn’t completely unarmed.

  “Can’t you get that thing to light?” he heard one man growl.

  Jared’s blood ran cold as he easily guessed their intentions. If they set the barn on fire, it would be easy for a spark to reach the house. He wasn’t worried for himself, but what would happen to Rachel and Maya if the place caught fire? He crouched down and crept along the side of the large building.

  “What about his bike? We’re not going to leave it in here, are we?” The voice sounded familiar. “That’s a sweet ride. I wouldn’t mind having it.”

  Jared’s lips lifted in a silent snarl. You touch my bike and we’re going to do some serious talking. He moved faster.

  When he looked around the door, which had been left ajar, he saw two men standing in the shadows of a stall. One held a lighter, while another was hovering over Jared’s Harley. Both men wore ski masks.

  “How many times were you kids told not to play with matches?” he drawled, sauntering across the barn’s threshold. “That’s a good way to get hurt. Now give them over before you burn yourselves.”

  The two men swiftly turned around.

  “Oh, I see, masks. Sorry, guys, Halloween is some months off,” Jared continued. “Next, you’ll be hanging toilet paper over the house. Now why don’t you two run along home before someone gets hurt.” Steel crept into his voice. “And it won’t be me.”

  The man standing by Jared’s motorcycle turned to his friend as if asking him what to do. The other one slowly circled, so they were on either side of Jared. The one standing by the motorcycle seemed to make up his mind and suddenly rushed forward.

  “I should have known you’d do that,” Jared muttered, burying his fist in his attacker’s stomach. Air rushed out of the man’s mouth and he dropped to his knees. When the second man made his move, Jared turned off all emotion and just fought, down and dirty. He ignored the pain in his skinned knuckles when they connected with one man’s face. Harley grabbed hold of that assailant’s jeans and hung on as the other man stumbled to his feet and ran off. A moment later, Jared heard the rumble of a motorcycle. He turned back as the first man struck the dog with a stick, to get him to let go.

  “You really don’t learn, do you.” Jared grabbed the stick and, when the man lashed out at him, knocked him unconscious. He was breathing hard as he reached down and pulled off the ski mask. He wasn’t surprised to see it was one of the men he’d caught teasing Harley. The young dog growled as if he remembered that day, as well.

  “No way I can leave you out here. Your buddy might decide to come back.” Grunting, Jared grabbed hold of the man’s legs and started pulling him out of the barn. When he reached the house, he dug out a rope and tied the man to a post at the base of the steps. “Don’t worry about getting home,” he told the still unconscious intruder. “I’ll have someone pick you up.”

  Rachel sat on the floor and thought of the curses Jared shouted when he dropped the hammer on his foot. She wanted to shout them herself and was ready to do just that and rush the doorway again when the door opened.

  “Those idiots just made it way too personal,” Jared growled, stalking into the kitchen. He stopped short at the sight of her sprawled on the floor. “Rachel, why are you on the floor? What happened? Are you okay?” He held out his hands and pulled her to her feet.

  “You are all right!” She threw herself into his arms. She leaned back for a second to study his face, gasping at the sight of a rapidly blooming black eye and abrasions on his cheek, and on his chest where his T-shirt was ripped. “No, you are not!” She gently touched her fingertip to the bruise around his eye. She winced the same time he did. “I tried to go outside,” she cried. “But I could not!”

  “It’s okay, baby. I’m fine,” he assured her. He smiled gently and brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckles, then pressed a kiss against her forehead. He reached around her and grabbed up his cell phone from the kitchen table.

  “What happened?” she demanded, running her hands over his chest as if she needed to convince herself he was still in one piece. “Who was out there? What were they doing?”

  “Two lamebrains tried to set the barn on fire,” he said grimly. “One of them got away, but the other is outside waiting for his ride to jail. I know I’ve seen this guy before. He was one of the goons I chased off the property for teasing Harley. I’m going to assume his friend was with that gang, too.” He punched out a series of numbers. “I may have to put the county sheriff’s office on speed dial,” he muttered. He kept one arm around her shoulders.

  “It’s Jared Stryker out at the Diamond B Ranch up on Cypress Road,” he said into the phone. “I’ve got a prospective arsonist available for pickup.” He chuckled. “He may not be gift wrapped, but he’s definitely tied up with a nice fat bow…. Okay, thanks.” He tossed the phone back onto the table, then looked down at Rachel. “I have to get back outside. I’ve got this guy tied up just outside the door, but I don’t want to take any chances on his getting loose.”

  She clutched his shirt at the idea of his being out there alone with a man who’d tried to hurt him and another still running free. “What if his friend comes back and attacks you again?”

  “If he’s smart, he won’t. But this time
I’ll be better prepared if he does show up again.” Jared walked into the other room and unlocked his gun cabinet. He pulled out his Glock and checked it. When he walked back through the kitchen he paused long enough to capture a stray curl and tuck it behind her ear. He gazed into her eyes. “Are you all right?”

  She smiled at his evident concern. “Other than feeling scared, yes, I am all right. But that needs to be cleaned.” She lightly touched a cut bisecting his eyebrow.

  “Later.” He took her hand and kissed her fingertips. At the sound of a siren, he grimaced. “I hate to say this, but you might be better off to go upstairs and stay out of sight.”

  The smile that had bloomed when he kissed her fingers dimmed just as quickly.

  “It would be hard to explain you,” he said swiftly. “If they think you’re a witness they’ll want to question you, and the first thing they’d do is ask for your ID. You don’t have any.”

  Rachel looked confused. “ID?”

  “Identification. It usually means a driver’s license or social security card.”

  “Oh.” She nodded. “You are right, I will go upstairs.”

  Jared stayed long enough to make sure she did so before he headed outside. A county sheriff’s patrol car pulled into the yard and a woman wearing a khaki uniform stepped out. Short dark hair peeked out from under her neatly aligned hat.

  “Are you Stryker? I’m Deputy Sheriff Wright.”

  “Yep.” He kept his hands in sight with his detective’s shield held high in one hand so she could easily see it. “I’ve got my weapon on me.”

  She looked him up and down. “I’ve heard about you.” She sounded as if she liked what she’d heard and definitely appreciated what she saw. She looked past him toward the unconscious man tied to the porch railing. “I understand you have a present for us.”

  Jared nodded. “I checked for ID but couldn’t find any. Does he look familiar to you?” He purposely didn’t say he’d seen the man before. He wanted to keep that information to himself for a little while. At least until he could figure out what was going on.

  She took her flashlight from her belt and shone the beam on the man’s face. He stirred and moaned. “No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at the station doesn’t know who your little friend is. You said this was arson?”