by Dana Mentink
“Why not call Hector?” her derisive thoughts chided her. He was sitting around in prison with nothing much to do and a reach that seemed to exceed the metal walls that caged him. She could grovel even more and throw herself on Dr. Elias’s mercy. Was there any pride left to salvage? Self-pity gave way to a hot flood of determination.
Stand on your own two feet, for once in your life.
Mile after mile gave her no clarity, no better sense of what to do. Only the instinct to keep going, to get away from whoever had violated their home, kept her pressing the car forward. She’d made up her mind to stop at the next town she came to and call the police when she realized where she was, at the entrance to the trailer park where Dallas lived. She’d given him a lift there once when his truck had engine trouble.
She saw the silhouette of his vehicle, and she pulled her car next to it, motor still running.
“Where are we?” Gracie said, unbuckling her strap.
“Nowhere, I was just stopping to rest my eyes for a minute.” What was she doing? She would not go to Dallas for help, the man who already seemed to have a strange influence over her pulse. An image of long-stemmed yellow roses floated into her mind. It was followed by a vision of Hector, the man whom she’d loved desperately, blindly, the husband who lied to her from the first kiss and right on until his arrest for drug dealing and later for the attempted abduction of her sister. Fool, fool, fool. Tears brimmed, captive in her eyes.
She swallowed hard. “Put your seat belt back on, we’re not stopping here.”
“But there’s Juno,” Gracie gabbled, shoving open the door and hopping out.
“Get back in the car right now, Gracie Louise,” Mia said, noting the spill of light from Dallas’s door as he emerged onto the trailer steps, peering into the darkness.
“Hi, Dallas,” Gracie called. “Can you make me some mac and cheese?”
Mia sighed. God could not lead her to another dark-haired man who would prove her a fool again. If that was His plan, Mia was going to make one of her own. Jaw tense, she stepped out of the car and went to retrieve her daughter.
FIVE
“Sorry to bother you,” Mia said, forcing a light tone, as Dallas bent to talk to Gracie, Juno dancing on eager paws beside him.
“Someone broke into our house,” Gracie said. “I think it was the Boogeyman. He wanted this.” She thrust the box of mac and cheese up in the rain.
Dallas’s face was a picture of confusion. “Huh?” he finally managed.
Mia squished up to him, feet sinking into the grass. “We had a break-in. We’re going to the next town to call the cops.”
It was hard to read his expression through the sheeting rain. “Come inside.”
Gracie hooted her approval and headed for the trailer.
“No,” Mia said too quickly. “I mean, we don’t want to involve you. I can handle it.” She wished her teeth had not begun to chatter madly at that moment.
“You can handle it inside, out of the rain.”
“I appreciate the offer.”
“Inside then.” And that was that. Dallas turned his back and ushered Gracie and Juno up the steps, politely holding the door for Mia, his muscled forearm gleaming wetly. And what was a woman on the edge of desperation supposed to do about that?
Just a phone call. A quick stop to rest and then out. She squelched up the trailer steps and inside, stopping abruptly in the doorway until he came up behind and pushed her gently through.
“I’ll leave puddles.”
His gaze flickered around the tidy interior. “You won’t be the first one.” He sighed. “Gone.”
“Who?”
“The redhead from the fire. Name’s Susan. She came here.”
Mia gasped. “What did she want? Who is she?”
He shrugged. “Not the chatty type. Only got that she was meeting Cora and she has some big trust issues. She was sitting at the table when I heard you pull up. She must have snuck out.” He leveled a look at Juno. “Aren’t you supposed to alert me to people sneaking around, dog?”
Juno shook water from his thick coat and hurled himself on the floor to offer his belly to Gracie for scratching.
Mia giggled.
Dallas did not, but she thought there was a slight quirk on his lips. Mia made one more trip into the rain to fetch the bag of spare clothes she kept in the car. In a few moments, Gracie was wearing faded jeans and a T-shirt, one size too small but dry.
“Can you make this?” Gracie said, shaking the box of macaroni at Dallas.
“What is it?”
The child blinked. “It’s mac and cheese. Don’tcha eat that?”
“No,” Dallas said.
“Well, what do you eat?” she demanded.
“Spicy food that makes you sweat. But I can probably manage mac and cheese.”
“No need,” Mia said.
Dallas pointed to the tiny bathroom. “There’s a sweatshirt hanging on a hook in there. It’s ugly, but dry.”
“We’re not staying.”
“I got that. Go put on something dry anyway. I don’t think I can enjoy eating this mac stuff while you’re dripping all over the floor.” He turned to Gracie. “How do you cook it? The label’s blurry from the rain.”
“Dump the stuff in bubbling water,” Gracie sang out as Mia headed to the bathroom.
“Don’t get too close to Juno,” she warned Gracie. “He’ll get mad if you pester him.”
Dallas quirked an eyebrow. “He’s never mad at kids, but I’ll watch them anyway.”
Mia walked into the bathroom and leaned her head against the door. Safe. You’re safe for the moment, and so is Gracie. She wanted to whisper a prayer, but something hardened the words in her throat. You got yourself out of that jam, Mia, and you can handle whatever comes next. All by yourself.
She squeezed the water out of her hair and slicked it down straight as best she could. Rolling up her sodden shirt, she pulled on the soft gray sweatshirt that went down past her knees. It felt warm against her skin.
She emerged to find Dallas in deep discussion with Gracie as she stared at the pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces set out on a piece of plywood that served as a table.
“I don’t know what it’s going to be,” Dallas said.
Gracie blinked. “But what’s the picture on the box?”
“A mouse chewed the box, so I put the pieces in a plastic bag. Can’t remember what the picture is.”
She touched a piece with one soft fingertip. “You haven’t gotten many pieces together.”
He nodded, staring ruefully at the corner where a half dozen pieces were connected. “I move a lot. Gotta put it away each time.”
“How long have you been working on it?” Mia asked.
He squinted. “Going on twelve years now.”
She wasn’t sure whether to gasp or laugh. “Really?”
“Well, I think it’s going to be a dog puzzle,” Gracie said.
“Could be. My mother gave it to me for my fifteenth birthday. She can’t remember what the picture was, either.” He sniffed. “Is mac and cheese supposed to smell like that?”
They looked at the pot which was bubbling madly on the stove. Mia grabbed a potholder and took it off the heat. There were bits of packaging swirling through the noodles and grainy orange tinted water. “Uh-oh. You dumped in the cheese envelope.”
“The what?”
“I forgot to tell him,” Gracie wailed. “You’re not ’posed to put the cheese envelope in the water.”
Mia put the mess into the sink. “I’m afraid it’s ruined.”
Dallas sighed. “I should have paid better attention while I was dumping. Who puts cheese in an envelope anyway?”
Gracie sat forlornly next to Juno. “Awww, rats.”
“Hang on,” Dallas said, wrenching open the cupboard. “I just remembered something.” He held a bag of Goldfish triumphantly in the air. “How about some of these?”
Gracie cheered, and Mia had to laugh as he handed Gracie the crackers with all the solemnity of a professor awarding a diploma. “Just don’t feed too many to the dog,” he said.
After a moment of hesitation, he said to Mia, “I’m making tofu and peppers. Share them with me?” She had not shared a private meal with a man since her disastrous marriage. Sweat popped out on her forehead.
“Oh, I couldn’t.”
“There’s no meat, but I’ve got plenty.” His black eyes fastened on her.
Mia was a committed carnivore, but how could she say no to the man whose sweatshirt she was wearing and who had massacred a box of mac and cheese in an effort to feed her child?
“Yes,” she said humbly. “That would be very nice.”
“Here’s a phone to call the cops. Then you can tell me about what happened.”
She sank down at the table. “You’re not going to believe me.”
“Try...” His words trailed off as he scanned the kitchen counter.
“What’s wrong?”
“Before she took off, Susan helped herself.”
“To your dinner?”
“No,” he said, voice low and deep. “To my knife.”
* * *
Dallas kept the words low so Gracie wouldn’t hear, but he needn’t have worried. She was deep in conversation with Juno about the merits of some or other Goldfish flavor over the rest.
He selected another knife from the block and began slicing peppers, while Mia phoned the police. There was no way to avoid listening in and that was fine since he was itching to know the details of what sent Mia and Gracie out into the night. To him.
Was she really there in his trailer, rolling her damp hair into a ponytail? He nearly nicked his finger trying to take a sideways glance at her.
Mia explained the break-in to the dispatcher and gave Dallas’s cell number as a contact before hanging up.
“They’ll send a unit when they can, but the levee is failing just north of town.” She laughed, a bitter sound. “They may need to evacuate my neighborhood anyway. It’s true what they say, when it rains, it pours.”
He dumped the peppers into sizzling olive oil and applied himself to neatly cubing the silken tofu. “It’s not a coincidence. Guy was looking for something, maybe.”
“Or looking to...” Her voice trailed away.
He stirred the pan with a wooden spoon. “I think he was searching and you surprised him. You said you had a flat. My guess is he made that happen to buy some time so he could search.”
“For what? Why?” Her lips parted in exasperation, dark eyes flashing. He found his own mouth had gone dry.
“Could it be connected to the fire?” Mia pressed her hands to her forehead. “I don’t even know what Cora was looking into. She didn’t give me the slightest clue.”
“Yes, she did,” he said, sliding a plate in front of her.
Mia gasped. “The photo. It’s in a file drawer. I have to go back and get it.”
“In the morning. Sleep here. Juno and I will find an empty unit, and you can have this one.”
“No, we couldn’t displace you.”
He sat on a chair across from her. “You’re tired, and Gracie needs a safe place to sleep.”
He could see the struggle unfold across her face in magnificent waves. “Mia, I’m not pressuring you to do anything. I’m just offering a safe place to sleep until morning. That’s all.”
She bit her lip.
He took her hand, the delicate fingers cool in his own. “Let’s pray.” He closed his eyes and thanked the Lord for keeping Gracie and Mia safe and for the provision of food and shelter. When he straightened, he thought he could see a million thoughts, a cascading river of emotions rolling through her eyes.
“I wouldn’t guess you to be the kind to pray.”
“Yeah? Because I’m a troublemaker?”
“No, no, of course not.” She laughed. “Well, maybe a little.”
“Troublemakers need God more than most.” He picked up his fork and started to eat.
She did the same. “Wow, hot.” She panted, reaching for a glass of water.
“Sorry.” He handed her a piece of bread. “Water doesn’t really help much. I’ve done a lot of backpacking. Spicy adds flavor to camping food.” He considered the contents of the fridge. “I have some eggs. I’ll scramble you some.”
He started to rise, but she stopped him with a touch on his arm that seemed to ignite an odd flicker of nerves all the way up to his shoulder.
“This is fine.” She swallowed. “Hector...loved spicy food, too, I just haven’t had it in a while. Thank you for cooking it for me.”
He should have gone with the eggs. “Do you worry about what he’ll do when he’s out?”
She swallowed and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “He already knows too much about my life, even from prison.”
And Hector’s enemies did, too. He had squirreled away money, so the rumor went, a hefty sum extorted or swindled from his competitors, including the ferocious Garza family. Garza wanted it back and he’d sent out feelers to discover if Mia knew the whereabouts of the jackpot. Could be the guy who broke into her house wasn’t searching for the photo, but the money.
A friendly DEA agent had alerted Reuben and Antonia to Garza’s interest. And Antonia had hired Dallas to keep tabs on Mia. Dallas was good at watching people, finding the lost—fighting—if necessary, and skirting rules when they did not serve. He had no home, no ties. He was the perfect man for the job.
And Mia would despise him when she found out. He speared another slice of pepper.
For now, he would allow himself to savor the relative closeness between them, a feeling he had not experienced in a very long time. It was a shame that staring was bad manners, because all he really wanted to do was sit motionless and drink her in.
Her gaze was soft as she watched Gracie play with Juno, feeding him way more Goldfish than any dog should consume. When a gust of rain hammered on the metal roof with such force that it boomed through the trailer, Gracie ran to her mother’s arms.
“It’s okay, baby,” Mia crooned. “Just the rain.”
“Where’s the bad man?”
Mia exchanged a quick look with Dallas.
“Bad man isn’t going to come here,” Dallas said.
“Why?”
“Because Juno is big and scary, and so am I.”
Gracie smiled and hopped in his lap. He was so startled he didn’t know what to do, sitting there as if he had a live grenade on his knees. Should he stand up? Give her a pat? Instead he sat rigid, hands raised, like a complete dork.
She grabbed him around the neck and pasted a cheesy kiss on his cheek. “I’m glad we came here.”
So am I, his heart supplied, much to the surprise of his mind, but he was still relieved when she vacated his lap.
He saw to the details as best he could, thinking his mother would have played the job of host much better than he. Extra blankets for Mia and Gracie, heater turned on to a low hum to ward off the chill. Couple of clean towels in case anybody needed showering. Was there something else? Antacids, to cure any hot pepper damage. And magazines? Wilderness Survival. Did women like that sort of thing? He stood awkwardly in the doorway.
“Keep my phone here.” He pulled out a spare he always had handy and programmed his cell into the one he gave Mia. “Call if you need anything. Use the laptop if you want. You can sign on as a guest.”
Gracie crimped her lips. “What if the bad man comes while you’re gone?” she whispered.
He considered telling her about the t
railer he would sleep in across the way which gave him a direct line of sight that he intended to monitor on a regular basis. There were other things he could share, but he did not. “You want Juno to stay with you?”
“Yes.” Gracie nodded, hopping from foot to foot. “Juno will watch me sleep.”
“Actually, he’ll sleep, too.”
Mia shot him a look that indicated he probably should have kept that fact to himself. How was someone supposed to know what to divulge to a kid and what not to? Was there some kind of instruction manual?
“Juno will sleep, but he hears things that you can’t.”
“Like bad men?”
Dallas nodded.
“If he hears me, how will he know I’m not bad?”
“He just knows.”
“Like God?”
Dallas took in the little bow of a mouth, the sweet innocence in that sober gaze and something moved inside him. “Yes, Gracie. God made dogs smart that way.”
“My daddy’s bad,” Gracie whispered, so low he almost didn’t hear it.
He heard Mia gasp, her lips pressed together. He swallowed and sent up a little prayer that he wouldn’t say something stupid and took a knee. “Your daddy made mistakes. If he’s sorry, God will help him be a good man again.”
“God can do that?” she said, eyebrow raised.
“Yes, He can.”
“How do you know?”
Dallas blew out a breath. “Because I was a bad man, and God helped me to be good again.” Gracie gave him a long, serious look, then hugged him.
Mia wrapped her arms around herself. Had he made things better? Or worse? He could not tell from the expression on her face. Without another word that might tip the balance to one side or the other, he let himself out into the rain.
SIX
The night droned on. Rain hammered down and thoughts thundered through Mia’s mind, three words pinching uncomfortably at her heart.