The Soldier's Promise

by Patricia Potter

  It was a good story. Being a natural skeptic, Josh wondered how much of it was true and how much was romanticized.

  “Angus’s Bible is in our church,” she said as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. “He recorded the day they married, first in the Ute village, then later in the church he built, along with the births of their children, two girls and a boy. Al is descended from that marriage and that son.”

  He felt, and saw, her emotion in telling the story. Two people from radically different lives. A Scottish trader and a Ute woman, but love apparently made it work. Eve’s eyes glistened as she looked up at him. The no-nonsense mayor had disappeared. He wanted to touch her again. Hell, he wanted to throw her down on the ground and make mad, passionate love.

  A comparison between her life and his flashed through his mind. He really didn’t know what love was.

  She touched his face. It was an infinitely gentle and wishful gesture.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “I’ve never met anyone like you,” he admitted.

  “I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad.”

  “I’m not, either,” he said. “You don’t know much about me.”

  “I know what I need to know,” she said. “I know you care about kids and dogs and you’re loyal to your friends. Dave was lucky to have you. I know you’re a craftsman in whatever you do. I know that you don’t trust easily. I know I like you more than I should. I never wanted to...get romantically involved again. I’m cautious, too. I don’t want the pain of loving and losing someone again, and even more I don’t want Nick to go through that darkness. But I...can’t seem to convince myself to stay away.”

  Her honesty touched him. He closed his eyes, tried to think of reasons he should run, like he always had when confronted by anything that intruded on his self-imposed discipline.

  That wall was falling in pieces around him. Amos had punctured it first, then Nick and his mother.

  It’s that damned rainbow.

  The rainbow was as good as anything to blame. He’d never seen one that was so perfect.

  “Josh?”

  Her voice startled him back into the real world. His name on her lips sounded different.

  They were both on guard now. Her voice was unsteady, and he knew his was hoarse with want.

  “Hungry?” she asked in an obvious attempt to defuse the tension. “I did bring more than chicken jerky.”

  He nodded and she took some sandwiches from the picnic basket, along with drinks.

  “There’s a sandwich for Amos,” she said.

  “You’re trying to steal my dog’s affections,” he said.

  “You can have one of my dogs in trade,” she retorted with a grin. “Take your pick.”

  “I think Nick would object.”

  “Yes,” she said. “He probably would.”

  He took a bite from one sandwich and shared the second with Amos. To his surprise, Amos gobbled it down.

  Then they started cleaning off the table, and just as they had at their first meeting their hands brushed, this time on purpose. If there had been a spark then, now it was a forest fire.

  He saw her swallow hard. He did the same.

  “Why did you join the army?” she asked.

  “I wanted a home,” he said simply. “I never really had one. A coach at the high school I attended was a former Ranger. Said the service had paid for college, that it had given him a sense of belonging. Sounded good to me.” He shrugged. He hadn’t meant to say that, but then he hadn’t planned to do any of this, including kissing her. There was something about her that drew out words and emotions he’d always kept hidden somewhere inside.

  “You miss it?”

  “Parts of it,” he said.

  Her hand reached for his free one and tightened around it as if she sensed the other part. The loss part. It was as if she sensed the pain that lived in him.

  It wasn’t pity. He couldn’t stand that. Rather, it was a balm to the pain he felt, and always would, when he thought about how Dave had traded his life for his. Survivor’s guilt, the shrink had called it. Common in vets.

  It was not common to him. It was like a red-hot pitchfork impaling his heart.

  She must have felt the sudden agony surging through him. A tear from her eye dampened his cheek. It took every bit of strength in him to keep his own tears at bay. He couldn’t remember ever crying before. Not when he’d awoken and learned Dave was dead along with most of the rest of his team. Not when he’d been told his army career was over. Not when his mother had died of an overdose.

  Men don’t cry. Rangers don’t cry. Not even for each other. Yet the tears were like an expanding substance in a bottle, ready to explode through. She must have felt him pull back because she took a step backward herself, though still clung to his hand. “Tell me about David,” she said softly. “And Amos.”

  He was ready. He was finally ready. Maybe because it was time, or maybe because it was Eve asking. “Dave and I were in the same outfit for ten years,” he said slowly, painfully. He had given Nate the short version, the unemotional version, but now the whole story was being wrenched from his heart. “We trained together, fought together.” His voice grew hoarse. “He died saving my life. Six others died as well because we were given the wrong information.”

  He paused as he relived that battle, just as he had so many times. “I was hit several times, and Dave covered my body with his as our copters were coming in. He received the Silver Star posthumously, little good that it did him.”

  He didn’t know why he was telling her about the last battle except it had haunted him, was still haunting him, and she needed to know that it might always haunt him.

  It came flooding out now. “I woke up days later in Germany. I was told by a surviving member of my team that when he didn’t come back, Amos kept looking for Dave. Amos hadn’t been with us on that last mission because he’d cut his paw badly the week earlier. I’d promised Dave that I would look after Amos if anything happened to him. He loved that dog, and Amos loved him.” His voice was raw. “But I couldn’t look after him, not for months.” His fingers knotted into fists.

  If she noticed, she didn’t say anything. Her eyes hadn’t left his, and he saw another tear roll down her cheek. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “People here should know what kind of a man Dave was,” Josh said, “and they should know about Amos. He waited and waited for Dave to return. He wouldn’t obey any other handler. Finally, he was sent back to Lackland Air Force Base to be retrained. He refused, just huddled in the back of his kennel. Waiting. Waiting for Dave.”

  “Until you found him,” she prompted when he hesitated.

  “He recognized me, but he still wouldn’t obey or react to me. I could barely get him to eat. He let me take him to my car, but he was a frail shadow of himself. He used to chase balls and KONGs with such joy. Because Dave was throwing them. I can’t get him to chase anything.”

  She let go of his hand and stooped down to pet Amos, running her hand through his fur from his neck to his tail. When she finished, she dropped her hand to his nose and let him sniff. He gave her a lick and gazed up into her eyes. “Good, loyal Amos,” she said. Josh saw her bite her lip and knew she was holding back tears.

  Shared grief. He knew she had suffered, too, that she understood loss, and she realized dogs felt it just as strongly as humans. Maybe that was why he could talk about David and that day. For the first time since that firefight, he didn’t feel alone.

  She stood. “I have to go,” she said. “I don’t want to, but I have to be at the rehearsal for the high school graduation.” She hesitated, then said, “Come with me tonight.”

  He shook his head. “I have work to do.”

  But he touched her chin and
lifted it so their eyes met. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

  Her eyes were soft, damp, and he crushed her to his chest for a moment, just holding her.

  “Did he ever marry?” she asked suddenly.

  “Dave?” he asked, surprised at the question.

  She nodded.

  “For a very short time. When we were overseas, she drained his bank account and divorced him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “He was more careful after that.”

  “And so were you.” She said the words with a small, wistful smile.

  “I’ve always been careful.”

  She hesitated, then said, “I didn’t know David well, but what I did know I liked. So did Russ. One time they raced across the lake on a dare.”

  “Russ?”

  “My husband.”

  “Stephanie told me he died suddenly.” Words also carefully said.

  She nodded.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, not knowing what else to say or even why he’d mentioned it. Maybe because he wanted to know so much more about her.

  “Nick’s just now coming out of his shell. The dogs helped.”

  Like maybe Amos was helping him. She didn’t say that, but he knew it might be true. He was slowly loosening up. To Nate. To Stephanie, certainly to Eve. He was allowing others into his life. People who were not military.

  He didn’t know what to say then. Emotions were running strong in both of them, and he sensed she was just as reluctant to talk about her husband as he was about Dave. It hurt too damn much.

  “We had better go,” he said. He offered her his hand. She took it, and it felt warm and welcoming.

  She nodded. “Thank you for coming.”

  They looked at each other. Didn’t move. Knowing if they did they would fall into each other’s arms again. And there was still too much separating them. He knew that. He saw that she did, too.

  But still they held hands as they walked back to her truck. To Miss Mollie, as she called it. It had always seemed a whimsical name for the truck of a businesslike mayor. Now he realized it reflected one of the many facets of her.

  He looked back at the falls as they turned away from them, and he noticed that she did, too. The rainbow was fading as the day faded. Yet its glow stayed with him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  THE FLASHBACK CAME back that night with a fury. Josh woke in the middle of the night, thrashing around until the sweat-soaked sheets knotted around him, trapping him. His heart raced as he struggled against them, frantic to find his rifle.

  Amos whined, nudged him. He took the dog’s head in his arms and held tight as the images slowly faded away. “Thank you, Amos,” he said.

  Amos licked his face.

  He moved over and Amos crawled up on the narrow bed with him, just as he had with Dave. Josh slowly relaxed as the first light of dawn seeped in.

  He thought of Eve. What if the flashbacks occurred while they were in bed together? He could hurt her.

  He knew he wouldn’t get more sleep, although he had worked until late into the night. He’d painted the second bedroom after moving the new furniture into the living area. The afternoon he’d spent with Eve made relaxing impossible. Too many feelings intruded.

  She had just dropped off him and Amos yesterday afternoon. She hadn’t come inside. Both of them knew that wouldn’t have been a very good idea. He’d taken a cold shower, a very cold shower, then started to work. Exhaustion had done nothing to quiet his emotions.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about Eve and what had happened earlier and what it meant. Or didn’t mean. There was no question that the attraction was explosive and mutual, but that didn’t make it right for them. They were different in every way: backgrounds, goals, lifestyles, hopes and dreams. She had a lot of them. He didn’t have any.

  Just keep busy. Maybe the best thing for them both was for him to finish the cabin and leave. He stood painfully. Standing on his feet, painting, was more difficult than walking. He wondered whether the pain would ever go away. The doctors said yes, with exercise and the strengthening of muscles, but his leg was never going to be what it once was. In the beginning, one step was progress. Now progress was measured by climbing a few steps of a ladder, catching himself from falling when his leg started to buckle and standing for longer periods of time. But he was damned if he was going to let it get the better of him. Not when so many other vets were fighting much harder battles.

  He was confident no one would serve a search warrant at six in the morning. At least not in Covenant Falls. It galled him that he had no control over that, either, that he had to depend on a police chief he really didn’t know and a woman with mixed loyalties.

  He made coffee and waited for it to percolate as he refilled Amos’s water dish and tried uselessly to tempt him with one of several KONG toys he’d filled with peanut butter. That would be the true test that Dave’s dog was recovering.

  Dave’s dog? He looked down at Amos. He’d thought of Amos in that context. But now he suddenly realized that was no longer true. Amos was his dog now, whether or not Amos realized it yet.

  When the coffee was ready, he filled a large insulated cup. “Come, Amos.” Amos followed Josh outside. The air was fragrant from the pines, and a parchment moon was still visible in a pure blue sky even as the sun rose in the east.

  He thought of the sheer beauty and power of the waterfall he’d visited yesterday. And he thought about the first Monroe, who had been almost dead from thirst when he found the lake. He had to admit both the reality and the story behind it were compelling.

  He also had to admit that Covenant Falls, with its forest and lake and falls, was growing on him. There was a peace in these mountains, a pristine beauty that was a salve for his memories. Afghanistan had been mountainous, too, but it had a harshness that was more threatening than tranquil.

  Dave had obviously cared for these mountains as well, since he’d hung on to the cabin for so long. That brought up the persistent question: Why hadn’t Dave mentioned Covenant Falls? Why hadn’t he sold the cabin years ago? He had even managed to protect it from Claire, his ex-wife. It had obviously been important to him.

  He would have to ask Laine Mabry, the attorney who drew up the will. But Mabry’s office was in the county seat, and this was not something Josh wanted to do by phone. He heard a rustling in the woods. Probably a rabbit. Amos looked alert but made no move to go after it. Josh wondered whether the dog stayed next to him because he wanted to, or out of simple disinterest.

  Either way, Amos wasn’t hiding or shivering. He had started to eat. He had friends in Nick, Stephanie and Eve. Covenant Falls had been good for Amos.

  Josh hoped Amos was beginning to think of him as the alpha of his pack, but he wasn’t there yet. Dave had explained the “pack” concept to him when he first became Amos’s handler. The alpha was the leader of the pack, and in Amos’s world Dave had been the alpha. The other soldiers were also members of his pack but they were not alphas. Josh knew he had to earn the position.

  He sat on a rock and talked to Amos as Dave had done. Amos sat and looked at him through big brown canine eyes. “Stay or leave Covenant Falls, Amos?” he asked the dog. “What should we do?”

  Amos didn’t blink. No answer there.

  * * *

  SAM CLARK STRUCK at midmorning. He brought a search warrant to Tom’s office with the signature of a county judge.

  Cited reasons included the contentions that burglaries began at the same time Josh Manning came to town, that his vehicle was recognized at one of the crime scenes and that a witness had seen him prowling around Shep’s home.

  Tom shook his head. “He lives in the neighborhood. He walks his dog. And the so-called witness to the burglary of the saloon who said he saw a Jeep that looked like Mannin
g’s? That particular individual does not have a sterling record of veracity.”

  “The judge thought it was enough,” Sam retorted.

  Tom gave it one last try. He would see this farce to the end, but he knew it would cause havoc in town. “I’ve talked to Josh Manning, looked around his property. Didn’t find anything unusual.”

  “But you didn’t question him officially.”

  “How do you know?”

  Sam flushed. “He wasn’t in this office.”

  “Sam, as long as I am chief, I will question people my way, not yours. Is that understood?”

  “People are wondering why we’re not doing anything.”

  “I don’t know why Judge Henley signed it, but Officer Keller and I will go with you. I want this by the book. You will be polite. You will search only those areas included in the search warrant.”

  “The entire property,” Sam said. “Inside and out.”

  “I’ll take the interior. He has a dog. It’s an ex-military dog, and I want you to be damned careful. Anything happens to that dog, and there’s going to be a lot of hell raised around town.”

  “It’s just a dog,” Sam said. “It’s trained to kill. I have the right to shoot if it attacks me.”

  “I’m going to make sure it doesn’t. Don’t test me on this,” Tom warned. “You may think your uncle is the most important person in town, but I know a lot of people in law enforcement. I can make sure you never wear a badge again. Even here.”

  “And if we find something?”

  “I’ll say, ‘Good police work.’”

  Sam nodded reluctantly. “When do we leave?”

  “When Officer Keller gets through with some paperwork. I have a few calls to make.”

  Tom wondered what Al had on Judge Henley, who had promised him a year ago he wouldn’t sign a warrant without Tom’s approval. Then he went to see Eve, closed the door and told her what had happened. “Is Manning at home today?”