Facing the Fire

by Calle J. Brookes

  "I didn't know that." He was just going to keep her talking. She was still shaking. Terrified. He hadn't wanted that. He cupped one gloved hand on the back of her head before he even thought about it. Just to comfort. It was hard to put the father in him aside long enough to terrify. "How far along are you?"

  "Eight months now. It's a boy." Her eyes were trained on the gun still resting in the holster on his shoulder. Jasper thought about moving it, tucking it in the small of his back. Just so she couldn't see it. Wouldn’t be so frightened of it. "We...we're still deciding on names."

  "That's always a fun time. My wife and I took forever. I thought our oldest son was going to be out of the hospital before we named him." Thirty-three years ago. He remembered. He thought this was Maggie’s first; Clive’s son was a widower, he believed. And had already had a daughter. Well, Maggie was going to be a busy girl soon. Things changed when you added that second one. Third, fourth, and fifth, too.

  "Why don't you just leave? I...nothing has happened here. You haven't hurt me. I think it would be best if you just go." She was shaking against him. All big-eyed and afraid.

  He felt lower than a garden slug.

  He thought about it. And it made the most sense. He had his hat pulled down over his head, and the wig was well-fitted. The fake beard was an entirely different color than his natural blond-and-gray hair. The scarf was still around his face. He was fortunate it was damned cold in Masterson County right now. He’d bundled himself up as best as possible to avoid the security cameras, if they weren’t the new WiFi ones.

  Not that that mattered. She hadn’t looked away from the gun even once.

  He hadn't touched her or anything without gloves. DNA would be hard to come by. He nodded.

  To his shock, she grabbed the lamp from the hall table. She heaved it at him. Jasper swore, instinctively reaching out to catch it before it caught him in the head.

  Maggie ran right past him.

  Straight toward the front door he hadn’t remembered to close behind himself.

  Jasper reacted instinctively to what his subconscious recognized as a threat.

  He grabbed for her.

  The girl slipped on the laminate flooring and went down. In the snow melt from his own damned boots.

  He caught her, fear for her and her baby rising up to overtake all sense of self-preservation.

  She struggled. He tried to get her back to her feet, but had to let her go, she was wiggling too hard.

  Jasper tried to keep her from hitting the floor, but the fool girl twisted. He was half a second too late.

  To his horror, his elbow caught her in the face.

  Maggie kept going. Down.

  Her head struck the door handle to the study with an audible crack. Jasper caught her right before she landed on her baby, heart pounding at what could have happened. He pulled her close for a minute too long.

  He knew exactly how dangerous a fall could be to a pregnant woman. Jody had fallen almost twenty-seven years ago—the baby, his little Claudia, almost hadn’t survived. She’d come ten weeks early at a whopping three pounds. Claudia had always been his little fighter.

  Jasper pulled the Tyler girl to her feet. He put his hands on her cheeks, seeing the terror, pain, and panic on her face. “Shhh. You’re ok. You’re ok, honey. Just a bruise or two, nothing more. Baby’s fine, Maggie. Nod if you understand me.”

  Maggie nodded. “Just go.”

  He was close enough to feel her baby kicking against him. Poor girl. He had no right to do this to her. “Ok, catch your breath. You’re ok. Nod if you understand me, Maggie.”

  It took a moment. Then she nodded, sending red-gold hair brushing against his cheek.

  Jasper stepped back. “I want you to listen to me.”

  “Just…leave me alone. I—”

  “Don’t panic. I’m not going to hurt you. I really am just here to get something old of Clive’s that would be embarrassing if it got out.”

  An understatement, but he needed to calm her down. He couldn’t just leave her like this.

  “Just go.”

  She twisted in his hands. She’d start fighting him again at any moment. Stubborn, those Tylers were all so damned stubborn.

  She was a spirited girl; she wouldn’t be cooperative for very much longer. Right now, he had her terrified and in shock. Soon, she was going to think she had to fight her way free. The longer he lingered, the worse it would get. For the both of them.

  Her eye was swelling. She’d have a shiner, where his elbow had struck her. She needed to put ice on it. Take time to calm herself down a little before her man got home.

  It was time for him to go.

  Jasper thought for a moment.

  He’d been in this house before, years ago. He remembered it well enough.

  "I'm going to do that. I want you to go down the hall, to the last bedroom at the end of the hall. Go in and close the door. Don't come out until you've counted to two hundred. And Maggie—don't do anything stupid. I know who you are, I know where you live, I even knew your uncle Ben well before he died. I know all your brothers and your cousins, too, including Augusta and her sweet little sisters. Nice girls, all three of them alone out there at that place of theirs. Hate for something to happen to them. It would take forever for help to get to them. Wouldn’t it? You don't want to do anything to make me angry. Can you do that?"

  She nodded. Her arms tightened around her abdomen. Protectively. "I promise. Just go. I won’t stop you. Leave my family alone."

  Jasper—the monster in a pregnant woman’s nightmares. It would take him a while to forgive himself that.

  "Good. You're a smart girl. You always were, I think. If it's you I'm remembering and not one of your cousins. Nikki, perhaps. You do resemble her, and Phil’s youngest girl rather closely. I’ve always struggled to tell the three of you apart. I think it’s the gold red hair." He deliberately ran one gloved finger through that silky hair. It was very pretty.

  His daughters all had hair as rich chocolate as their mother’s had always been. Other than the hair, she reminded him of his girls. Probably because they’d all grown up together. Played together. He felt like a real rank bastard for what he was doing to her.

  But…he had to do it.

  She paled even more. Maggie understood what he was implying. She didn’t recognize him, and that was terrifying her. "I'll do what you said."

  "Good. Go. Rather...count to three hundred. Just to be extra safe. That's five minutes. You stay in there for five full minutes like a good girl."

  He watched her hurry down the hall as fast as a heavily pregnant woman could.

  Once she was in the nursery, he took the kitchen chair he'd grabbed and jammed it up under the door. She'd be able to get out through the window, if she absolutely had to. She shouldn’t hurt herself too badly doing that. The window was only a few feet from the ground and nice and wide. Gunderson would need to make certain his daughter didn’t sneak out of it when she was a teenager.

  Jasper could give the younger man pointers on wild teenager daughters.

  He smirked at the memories that brought.

  Jasper’s eldest girl had had a wild streak when she’d been in her mid-teens. He’d ended up with alarms on all of Claudia’s windows. It had taken her two years to figure out how to reprogram them. But she had, and then all three of the girls had taken advantage of it.

  His girls were smart, smart girls, after all. With a love of adventure.

  Locking Maggie in would buy him even more time.

  Time that would be needed. He needed a minute or two to get to his truck.

  This had been one of the stupidest things he had ever done. Had it been Gunderson, he’d probably already be dead. Jasper had gotten lucky today and he knew it.

  He had to be more careful next time.

  Because he knew the truth: he couldn’t quit. He had his own family to protect, after all.

  27

  Maggie caught her breath as she pulled herself bac
k to her feet six minutes after she’d heard the intruder jam something under the door handle. She'd landed hard on her hands and her knees in the snow and mud outside Violet’s bedroom window.

  Her left hand went to her stomach. The baby was kicking. He was fine, for now. But every inch of her own body hurt like the blazes.

  She rounded the house and hurried back inside—though going back in was the last thing she wanted to do.

  Maggie needed her bag, her keys. Her phone.

  Her boots.

  Her way out of this place. Thanks to Marin, she had a car. A way off of the property.

  Her friend had said she’d need the car—Maggie wished Marin had bothered to tell her why.

  She’d watched the man’s truck pull away, before she’d ever contemplated climbing out the window. She knew she couldn’t get away from him if he came for her again, not in the condition she was in.

  She’d had no choice but to stay where she was until she knew it was absolutely safe.

  The last thing she could do was stay at the ranch now. He could decide she wasn’t any real threat and come back. Or he could decide she knew too much. And come back.

  To do whatever he wanted.

  It just wasn’t safe there.

  Her head hurt, her face hurt. The baby was moving like crazy; no doubt he felt her stress.

  She needed to know he was ok. She had to get out of there.

  She stumbled toward the table where she'd left her phone and keys. She thought about calling for help, but they were forty miles north of town.

  That could be just too long.

  Her cousin Derrick’s ranch was four miles up the road. Someone would be there, one of her cousins or the few hands that they employed. If not, she’d let herself in and use their phone to call Joel. Or she’d drive herself to town. Not her first choice, but…it was anywhere but here.

  She wasn't staying here.

  Not after this.

  She held herself together the best she could, fear for her baby eclipsing everything.

  She wasn't hurt, nothing more than bruises and a headache. He’d hit her cheek hard enough to give her a black eye, she was almost certain of that. Bumps, bruises—she’d survive.

  But she was going to get to the hospital. Have the baby checked.

  Somehow, she made it to Derrick's. It was just past lunch, but her cousin was on the porch, lumber surrounding him and half the flooring ripped out, wearing nothing but a Masterson Mavericks sweatshirt and ripped and faded jeans. "Derrick...Derrick…"

  She almost burst into tears seeing him there, strong and sure and safe.

  He came off the porch like he had wings, tossing the hammer aside quickly. "Mags, what's wrong?"

  "Someone was in the house. He knocked me down, hit me in the face, locked me in. I couldn't stay there. I couldn't. I need to go to the hospital...I'm pre—"

  He scooped her close, just rocking her slightly. "No need to say anything more—and the baby's rather hard to miss, kiddo. Let's get you to my truck. I'll drive you in to see Perci at the hospital myself."

  Exactly what she'd been counting on. He practically carried her with an arm around her once-waist, until he got her to the old truck he’d had for years. Within moments he had the engine started, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and the heat vents pointed right at her.

  "I'm going to assume that there is a Mr. Maggie's Baby Daddy floating around somewhere in this county that I need to get ahold of?" He shot her a glance, looking so much like her brother Michael she couldn’t help but start to calm a bit.

  He was a Tyler, after all. And Tylers took care of Tylers out here.

  "Clint. He…someone will need to find him. He’s got Violet in town somewhere. I…someone needs to find him.”

  "Gunderson?" Derrick frowned. "Hell, Maggie, he's way too damned old for you. He's older than I am."

  "Only by about two or three years or so. There are eleven years between Clint and me.”

  "And about a century of experience. What's his intentions toward you and that baby?"

  "Are you serious?" Maggie gripped the door handle. "This isn't 1926, Der."

  "This is Masterson County, and you are my baby cousin. It’s my Tyler-duty to make sure some guy doesn’t take advantage of you. Or any of the rest of the girl-pack. So do I need to go kick his ass or not?"

  "My brothers already threatened to. So I think that's covered." The baby gave a hard kick. Hard enough to reassure her a little. Her head still hurt. Her left eye watered and throbbed and burned.

  As if he’d read her mind, Derrick flipped down the visor. “There should be tissues or something in the glove box. You’ve got blood under that eye.”

  She held the tissue to her eye the rest of the drive into town.

  Maggie just leaned back against the seat. Her cousin wrapped his strong hand around hers and squeezed reassuringly.

  She pulled in a breath as a sob threatened to escape. As what had happened started to sink in.

  By the time Derrick pulled into the hospital parking lot, she was crying quietly.

  All she’d seemed to do since getting pregnant with Clint Gunderson’s baby was cry. Damn it.

  Maggie was stronger than this.

  Derrick was close to panicking. He never had been able to handle female tears. Her cousin Perci would make herself cry on purpose when they’d been in junior high, just to make the older Derrick twig out.

  Perci had been a bit of a brat back then.

  He scooped her up in his strong arms before she could stop him. Maggie just wrapped her arm around his shoulders and clung. He’d probably be calling every brother she had within the next fifteen minutes. And then all the cousins. Maybe even the second-cousins that populated this side of the state.

  Maggie knew how Tylers worked, after all.

  Tylers tended to stick together when something went wrong.

  Her cousin Perci was standing by the ER intake desk when Derrick carried her in past three nurses she recognized, including the mayor’s daughter.

  Everyone in town was going to hear about this.

  Perci’s own stomach jutted out in front of her, just as much as Maggie’s. "What’s happened? Mag—"

  Derrick put her back on her feet and Maggie turned toward one of her closest friends, as well as family. "I...there was someone in the house. I was knocked down when I tried to get away. I struck my head. I made it to Derrick—"

  "Ok, let's get you into an exam room. I'll get Dr. Paterson. Or Nate. Whoever is free." Perci had an orderly grab a wheelchair. Before Maggie could protest, she was being wheeled toward an exam room near the rear of the ER. "Anyone I need to have Tiff call for you?"

  "You mean the father?" Maggie asked, drily. She was starting to calm, though her head still felt like it was going to explode. "Perci...there is something I need to tell you. About the father..."

  "Don't worry," Perci said, firmly. "I know you were living with Clint Gunderson before you left. I'm not naïve—nor am I blind. You got that hot cowboy cop's clothes off and had some fun at least once, didn't you?"

  Well, that was one way to put it. But there was no anger, no judgment or censure like Maggie had half-feared there would be.

  Clive had almost killed Perci, after all. It had taken her cousin months to recover.

  "I was afraid you'd hate me." Clint's brother had almost killed Perci and Pip, and Perci's brother-in-law, Matt.

  There was no love lost between Gundersons and Tylers. Some of her more vocal cousins had a lot to say on Clint’s antecedents. No one had wanted to listen to her when she’d said Clint was different.

  That was one of the reasons Clint had given for them not being able to even try a relationship seven months ago. Because of her family. Like they were a doomed Romeo and Juliet of Masterson or something. She never had bought into that.

  "It wasn't you out there on the road that day, Mag. Nor was it Clint. I've made my peace with him. I never had a war with him, to begin with. My main concern is how w
ell he treats you. I didn't even know you were together."

  "We...weren't, aren’t…maybe. I’m not sure exactly what we are right now," Maggie said as Perci took her blood pressure and oxygen stats. As she started to feel a bit calmer. "We...did something stupid. Two months later I took Violet and left because of the shooting. I feel...like everything was on pause for five months. Now...I was confused by him then—and I’m even more confused by him now. I thought…I knew what I wanted before I returned to Masterson County, but…He…"

  Perci hugged her. Maggie resisted the urge to cling. Her cousins were the closest things to sisters she’d ever had, and she loved every one of them. "You'll figure things out. Hot Masterson County men are extremely difficult to figure out, but I have full faith you’ll succeed."

  "I had a plan. Get back to Masterson, find me a house, work remotely for the woman in Finley Creek. Build a life independent of my brothers—and of Clint. I thought he wouldn’t want more than that one night. He’d said as much the morning after we…made the baby. I was good with that."

  "He what?" Perci helped her into the hospital gown. “Maybe he’s dumber than I thought. Guess not every man can have both looks and brains like Nate and his brothers.”

  "Clint told me almost eight months ago that there wasn't room in his life for a relationship. The morning after. It was just one night. Now that I'm back and halfway to being as big as a whale, he says I'm all he's ever wanted. That he’s wanted me all along." And there was no way under the blue moon that Maggie would ever believe it was her he wanted. No matter what he said to the contrary. “And the way he looks at me…”

  “You’re not as big as a whale,” Perci said, then patted her own stomach. “I am. Now, tell me about how he looks at you. Inquiring minds want to know if it’s anything like how Nate looks at me. He gets this expression…wow.”

  "He wants the baby. He thinks that telling me he wants me will get him that. His sense of honor or something. He’s obsessive when it comes to doing the responsible thing. So that he doesn’t look like Clive." Maggie had always been close to Perci and her twin, and Perci’s two sisters. Their babies would grow up playmates with Maggie’s. She was looking forward to that. “I’ve given him two weeks. He has… a little over one week left. I want my house in town by then. But...I want my house in town."