by Dale Mayer
She stood there trembling in his arms. “My God,” she said, “he’s dead.”
“I would imagine so.” Dane, on the other hand, had bolted to the nearest hiding spot. So, either Hudson was doing the shooting or somebody else was involved. Baylor wanted to help them, but no way could he leave her.
As if sensing his inner argument, she said, “You know that you need to go out there.”
“No, I don’t,” he said calmly. “Dane is out there, and he’s fine.”
“Maybe and maybe not.”
He chuckled. “You’re not getting rid of me so easily as that.”
“What if I don’t want to get rid of you?” she asked. “What if I want to have you stay around a whole lot longer?”
“Well, that’s doable, but, at the same time, you’re still not getting me to go out there and to leave you alone.”
“Surely there can’t be any more bad guys,” she argued in a calm voice, just oozing with common sense.
He laughed at her. “Nope, it doesn’t matter how reasonable you make it sound. I’m not doing it.”
She groaned. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Yep, I sure am. Are you?”
She looked at him sideways, her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. “I am too.”
He grinned, then leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek. “It sounds like we’ll have many months of fun getting to know each other.”
She rolled her eyes. “What if we don’t make it through a few months?”
“I’m not really into short-term relationships,” he said. “I do like to—”
Just then, Dane made another move, and she saw him disappear into a vehicle. Just as suddenly, the door to their house burst open, and two men stepped in. She sank back against Baylor’s chest. “What do you want?” she cried out.
The two men looked at her, looked at Baylor, and asked, “Is this her?”
Baylor, his arms wrapped around her snugly, said, “Depends. Who is her?”
“The governor’s daughter.”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s dead. Remember? You guys killed him.”
“We didn’t kill him, but he might have died as a result of his injuries.” He shrugged. “We just need money.”
“How come there’s no end to you guys?”
“Our boss accepted the deposit, but, when the kidnappers killed the governor, our boss took the money, and we never got paid for the job. Now only two of us are left,” he said. “The other two just died.”
“Who’s after you?” Baylor asked.
“A contractor,” he said quietly. “We need money now. It’s your life or the money.”
“Wow,” she said. “A choice like that depends on how much money,” she said. “And I can’t get any of it over here right now anyway.”
“We need money, and we need a lot.”
She didn’t even know what to say.
“What does a lot mean to you?” Baylor asked. He wasn’t sure just how much their idea of money matched up with that of Western society.
“A minimum of ten thousand to leave,” he said, looking around nervously. “And fast.”
“Ten thousand won’t get you very far,” Baylor said, even though the guy realized he had asked for too little.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “You don’t understand. They’re on our trail, and, even now, they could be here.”
“Well, if they just shot your buddies out there, then they probably are here,” Baylor said.
“Or,” Gizella snapped, “you shot your own two buddies, so you didn’t have to share the money.”
He looked at her and glared; then he raised his handgun at her.
“If you kill me, there’s no money,” she said quickly. He hesitated a second, walked over, and separated her from Baylor, then shoved her into a chair and held the gun to her head.
“Now,” he said, “I need the money.”
She looked up at Baylor and said, “I don’t even know how to get him that kind of money.”
“I do,” he said, but he never took his gaze off the gunman. The other one stood watch at the open door. “Interesting that you’re here,” he said to the middleman. “I highly suspect that she’s right and that you shot your teammates.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the middleman said. “They were a liability.”
“Does your new teammate over here realize that he’ll get shot too?”
“I am not,” he snapped, glaring at his buddy.
“Oh, I think you probably are, now that this guy found his money,” Baylor said to the gunman. “Why would he share with you? He didn’t share with the other two. The two gunmen looked at each other, with the middleman, the one seemingly in charge, saying to the other gunman, “Forget it. He’s just trying to cause trouble.”
“He better not be right,” the other guy said. “You know how I’ll handle that.”
“You’re not going to handle that, of course. You don’t have to,” he snapped. “Don’t let this asshole even begin to turn you down that pathway.”
“You mean, the one of truth and justice?” she said, unable to resist the snide comment. “Jesus, can’t you even tell when he’s lying? He gets this little tick in the side of his cheek,” she said, staring at the gunman. That earned her a hard whack across the face.
She cried out and stayed curled up, as she tried to regain her senses. She heard angry shouting around her and realized, of course, that Baylor was trying to defend her. He shouldn’t have to, and she had provoked it, not that she really felt like being that calm about it all. As she sat here, curled up in a corner, she studied the layout and noted how the gunman stood there with his gun. As always, the men never seemed to think that she was a threat. For whatever reason, that just pissed her off.
She looked at Baylor and studied the gun right next to her. As the man shouted and yelled at the other gunman, she reached up and, without warning, pulled the gun free of his hand, then quickly flipped it, so it faced him. He stared at her, stunned, and backed away. Immediately Baylor stepped up and, with a hard fist to the jaw, knocked him out. But as he did that, the middleman, the other gunman, bolted.
She groaned. “What’s the point of getting one if we don’t get both of them?” But Baylor was already gone. She immediately got up and stared down at the unconscious gunman. She walked to the front door, closed it, and then stepped into the kitchen to find something to tie him up with.
He started to moan, so she came back and held the gun against his head and said, “Don’t move.”
But the moaning was apparently just a minor symptom of everything else gone wrong in his world because he didn’t move after that. She waited, hating that she was holding a weapon in her hand. Hating the scenario and everything about this. But, if it got the last gunman off her back, she would be more than happy. The door burst open suddenly, and she had absolutely no warning before she faced another gunman, a stranger, who stood there, staring at her.
He looked at the gun in her hand and, quick as a flash, pointed one toward her. “Put that down.”
She stared at him in shock. “Who are you?” she asked, lifting hers.
“Put that gun down,” he said, his voice cold and cutting.
She looked at him and said, “I think I recognize that voice.” She nodded, studying him. “I didn’t see your face, but I heard you. You’re one of my kidnappers, aren’t you?”
His glare darkened. “Did you hear me now? Put the gun down.”
She nodded. “What if I shoot your buddy here first?”
“I don’t care,” he said. “I came to make sure he was dead anyway.”
She sucked in her breath. “So, you’re the one who shot the two outside then, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he said, “and now I just have these two to take care of, and then we’re free and clear.”
“Oh, so you’re the contractor for my kidnapping? You already got paid for the job, didn’t you? You do know that these guys you hired came aft
er me for their cut of the money you stole,” she said in a conversational tone.
“Of course I do,” he said in disgust. “All I’ve been doing is chasing these guys, and you keep getting in my way.”
“Not me,” she said. “That would be Baylor. He’s out there looking for you right now.”
“That’s his problem,” he said. “Once I’ve taken care of these guys, it’s a done deal.”
“Then you should be chasing the one he’s after right now.”
“He’s too late. I already got that one. And, because they came out of this residence, I came in here myself, and look what I found.”
She stared at him, at the unconscious man at her feet, and asked, “What? You’ll really shoot him while he’s lying here out cold?”
“It’ll hurt him less this way,” he said with a snarl. “And I don’t have time for this.”
“That’s because Baylor is on his way back. No way he’s not.”
“Well, he shouldn’t have left you alone in the first place,” he said, lifting the handgun, as if to shoot her.
She immediately took several steps back. She had the gun in her hand, and it faced him, but she was struggling to pull that trigger and to kill him.
“You see?” he said. “There are killers out there, and then there are victims. People, like you, will always be the victim.”
“No,” she said, stiffening her back and glaring at him. “I won’t be a victim again. You’ve cured me of that.”
“Says you.” He lifted the gun, and his finger pulled on the trigger. Multiple shots rang out, but the first and foremost came from her own gun, as she pulled the trigger and threw herself to the side. She watched from the floor in shock, as his body danced in midair against the doorway. She’d only fired once, so somebody else was firing too. And just as suddenly, there was Baylor. He bent down, checking her frantically for injuries.
She smiled and said, “See? I knew you cared.”
“Of course I care,” he said in exasperation. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt,” she said. “I did pull the trigger, but I don’t know if I hit him or not,” she said apologetically. “But he called me a victim, and I told him that I was nobody’s victim.”
He looked at her in surprise, and then a huge smile crossed his face. He leaned over and kissed her passionately. She was crushed in his arms, and it was all she could do to wrap her arms up and around his neck and hold him close. When laughter came from the doorway, Baylor finally lifted his head, looked that way, and said, “What?”
But it was Mason of all people. A big grin was on his face, and he was laughing, obviously delighted. “Hey, I told you.”
“It’s got nothing to do with you,” Baylor said and lifted an arm. “Go away.”
She smiled and said, “We’ll have time for that later.”
He grinned at her. “I’ll hold you to that. And, no, you won’t ever be a victim again,” he said. He looked down at the guy beside her on the floor. “Did you kill him?”
“No, he’s still out from when you hit him.”
He nodded in surprise. “I’ll say his jaw may be broken, but that’s the worst that I did.”
“Well, he hasn’t moved since.”
“That’s possible, but not likely with all this commotion going on.”
Mason came inside, and they checked the guy over. “He’s got bullet wounds, probably from before he came inside,” he said. “Looks like one of them maybe did some damage.”
“Maybe?” she asked. “Is he dead?”
“Not yet, but he will be soon.” After that, more men came in, and there was a flurry of activity as the dead bodies were removed.
She looked up at Baylor. “Do we have to talk to the cops?”
He kept her close, as he had since they’d first burst into the room, and she loved it. She loved every minute of it and wrapped her arms tight around him.
He whispered, “No cops.”
“Thank heavens for that,” she said. “How long until we take that flight?”
“Too long in some ways,” he said, and then he waggled his eyebrows. “Not long enough in others.”
She burst out laughing. “Aren’t you just too cute,” she murmured.
“We have a lot to take care of,” Mason said from the doorway. “We’ll probably be a few hours.” He looked at Baylor and said, “So, make sure you get enough rest out of it.”
“Ha,” Baylor said as the door closed.
She looked from the door back to Baylor and said, “Did he mean that?”
“Well, he meant something like that,” he said.
She reached out and punched him gently in the stomach. “Surely he wasn’t suggesting what I think he was suggesting.”
“It’s an old running joke,” he said, “because I told him that I was immune to whatever was going on with this team.” Then he quickly explained how everybody in the team had found partners and that Baylor had held out, thinking it wouldn’t have anything to do with him. “Yet look at me now. Mason’s clearly having a field day with it.”
“And you’re not supposed to be angry about it,” she said.
“I’m not,” he said with a big grin. “I’m thoroughly delighted actually. I found something I didn’t even know I’d been looking for.”
“That’s good,” she said. “Those are the best kinds of finds.”
“Very true.”
And kissed her again; as he pulled back, he grinned down at her, absolutely loving that he had found himself with her in the same place again. He’d firmly believed his words when he’d first spoken to Mason about his matchmaking efforts. But, damn, Baylor was glad he’d been wrong.
*
“Are they all laughing at us?” she asked, half serious.
“No,” he said, laughing himself. “They’ve all found a love that none of them ever expected to find,” he said. He spoke in a very serious tone because it was important that Gizella understood. “They aren’t laughing at us. They aren’t laughing at anybody. They’re just enjoying the fact that somebody else has found the happiness and the love that they have. They want the same thing for everyone, and, because I’m one of the few single guys, they wanted me to find somebody special too.”
Her eyes widened as she contemplated that.
“The stories I could tell you,” he said with a big smile. “You wouldn’t believe it. But they’ve all found love on missions, and Mason’s team is particularly well-known for it, since he started it. Then, one by one, everybody else in his team found the same thing.”
“And it’s a big joke?” she asked, still questioning it.
“There’s a lot of humor and teasing about it, but nobody’s joking, especially about the love,” he said. “Several of the members have gone on to get married. Several are starting families,” he said. “Everybody, and I mean everybody, is still together that started in this way.”
Her smile flashed wide and beautiful. “I like the sound of that,” she said, “because I’m not really one to do all these short-term relationships.”
“I know,” he said, “and that’s not what I want either.”
She wrapped her arms around him and said, “Well, in that case, good.” He chuckled, and the rumble of it rolling up his chest and filling the room was infectious, and she started laughing too. “Everybody?”
He nodded slowly. “Except Hudson. He’s one of the few single guys left.”
“Wow,” she said, “so we’ll have to fix him up then immediately.”
Baylor burst out laughing. “I’m not exactly sure that’s what Hudson wants.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants,” she said, with an impish smile. “If that’s the way this goes, then he should be next,” she said, with a decisive nod.
“Oh, I’ll have fun telling him that,” he said.
She looked at him and said, “He won’t be too happy about it, will he?”
“Well, lots of the guys were, but I wasn’t,” he said. “I just fi
gured there wouldn’t ever be anybody for me, so I didn’t want the guys to go down that lane to find out I was the only one who was unmatchable.”
She stared at him in shock. “My God,” she said, “why would you even think that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “maybe because I haven’t got a partner?” Such a wry tone was in his voice that he realized he was only half joking. A part of him had always wondered if he’d ever find a permanent partner. Somebody long-term. Somebody who would let him be himself and still be happy with him. So often it felt like relationships changed a person, and he didn’t want to be the only one who changed, unless it was an improvement.
“You are seriously a beautiful man, both inside and out,” she said. “Absolutely no way should you be single.”
“Well, I am.”
She looked at him, then batted her eyes and said, “Well, … you were.”
He burst out laughing, picked her up, and swung her around the living room, then hugged her close.
“See?” she said. “You’re magical.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “I spent a lifetime just working, trying to be the best I could be.”
“And it shows,” she said. “When you think about it, that’s all any of us can do.”
“What about you?”
“I basically shut out the relationship issue,” she said, with a shrug. “The last few years I was so focused on my mom and her healing that I put everything else on the back burner. She kept telling me that I needed to go out and find a partner, but I didn’t really want to. I didn’t want to lose touch with her.”
“So then our timing is perfect,” he said. “When we were both ready, things worked out that brought us together. I just wish it hadn’t been such a rough time for you.”
“I’m just so thankful you were here. I can’t imagine going through all this without you,” she said. Looking around the room, she asked, “Will they really be gone for a few hours?”