Groaning, she stood up, hand on the brass headboard as she tested the stability of her ankle. She still couldn’t believe how much a broken ankle could slow her down. Limping gingerly into the bathroom, she decided a hot shower to wake herself up was in order.
Outside, she heard the beat of a helicopter’s blades in the distance. She absently wondered if the DEA bus that had acted as their communications center was still out in the front gravel parking area of the Lockwood home. Her drowsy mind hopped, skipped, and jumped among many aspects of the ambush that had taken place last night. More than anything, she wondered if the children were being taken care of. She wondered about the mothers these children had been torn from, probably on the Mexican side of the border, still frantically trying to find them. She shook her head; the world of today was darker than she could ever have imagined when she was a child.
After her shower, Tal sat on the stool in the bathroom, running a comb through her recently dried hair. She preferred her long hair to be caught up in a ponytail so it was out of the way. As she pulled back the thick, dark mass, a knock came on the partly open door. Looking up, she saw Wyatt poking his head into the room.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” he drawled, pushing the door open, allowing the rest of the steam to escape. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Wrinkling her nose, Tal quickly secured her hair ponytail. “I’m not sure I’m there yet. What time is it, Wyatt?”
He looked at the watch on his wrist. “Thirteen hundred, or one p.m. to you civilian types.” He gave her a teasing grin, knowing full well that she understood military time. Her eyes still looked a tad puffy, and he knew that she’d need another good night’s sleep to bounce back to her old self. Leaning against the doorjamb, his arms across his chest, he said, “The last of the DEA and ATF vehicles are leaving right now. My mother is very happy about that, grumbling that the gravel driveway looked like a parking lot.”
“That’s good to hear,” Tal said. She took stock of him: he wore a red T-shirt with a blue chambray shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. “You look chipper. What time did you get up?”
“About eleven hundred,” he replied, giving her a hungry look. Tal had taken a shower, washed her hair, and climbed into a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved dark green tee that matched the color of her eyes. He saw she had on her special protective boot. “Been working with Watson, the DEA commander, cleaning up a bunch of things with Artemis and what’s been going on out here. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”
Groaning, she stood and tested her ankle. “That would be great. Has the family all left, or are they still here?”
“Mattie’s babysitting a bunch of her kids in Van Horn,” he said. “Dad, Jake, and Cat are out with his wranglers, moving a herd of cattle from one pasture to another. Mom is in the kitchen prepping things for tonight’s dinner. Come on, I’ll walk you downstairs to the kitchen table and grab us some cups of coffee. Then you’ll feel better.”
“I feel like I’ve got cotton for brains, Lockwood.”
“My, my, you are grumpy without your coffee, Ms. Culver.” He chuckled, placing his hand on the small of her back, matching her pace as they left the bedroom and headed down the hall to the stairs.
Daisy glanced up as Tal and Wyatt appeared. “Tal, how are you feeling this afternoon?” she called.
“Grumpy and needing coffee badly,” she admitted.
Wyatt pulled out the chair at the kitchen table for her. “She’s a mama bear right now, Mom,” he warned.
“Oh, I know the drill. Your dad is the same way without three or four cups of coffee in his veins after he wakes up,” she said, grinning. Daisy poured Tal and Wyatt cups of coffee. Wyatt came over to retrieve them, thanking her.
From where she sat at the long wooden table, Tal could see out the windows, whose drapes had been pulled back. “Looks like everyone is gone,” she said, taking the cup from Wyatt. She gave him a warm, grateful look, taking a sip of the fresh brew.
“Thank goodness,” Daisy muttered. She put the last of the spices on a huge pot roast sitting in a pan on the counter. “I hope nothing like this ever happens again around here.”
Wyatt grimaced. “We aren’t going to know for a while,” he cautioned his mother.
She pulled a sack of Yukon Gold potatoes from another drawer, setting them up on the counter to be peeled and halved. “Why can’t things be like they used to be, Wyatt? Why do they have to keep changing?” she muttered, pulling a potato peeler out of a drawer.
Tal and Wyatt traded knowing looks filled with understanding. “The world is in a dark place, Daisy,” Tal said between sips of coffee. “And from our perspective, it’s declining into a horrendous nightmare. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Shaking her head, Daisy said, “Now I know why my elders pine for the good ol’ days. We never had the horrible things going on in the world today back then.” She washed some of the potatoes off beneath the spray of the faucet and quickly began to peel them.
“There’s all kinds of wars going on everywhere around our world,” Wyatt agreed.
“Well, we certainly had a war here last night on our property!” Daisy grumped, giving him an unhappy look.
“If it hadn’t been for Mark Reuss giving us a heads-up, we wouldn’t have known anything about it, Mom.” Wyatt shrugged. “By doing that, he saved a lot of children from the sex-trafficking trade and a life I don’t even want to try to imagine.”
Daisy quickly cut up five of the peeled potatoes and placed them around the edges of the large roasting pan. “I feel sorry for all of them. The world just seems to be messed up to a point where it’s nose-diving into the darkest corners. The worst is bein’ brought out in everyone.”
Tal felt for Daisy. She saw Wyatt nod. She didn’t think his mother would want to hear anything about the kind of darkness that their security company wrestled with daily. “How was Mattie this morning?” she asked, changing the topic.
“About the same,” Daisy said, pulling a huge bunch of carrots out of the refrigerator and laying them on the counter. “She was relieved to hear that Mark wasn’t among that group last night.”
Wyatt said nothing. He needed to bring Tal in on a lot of what had happened last night, including his getting hit with a bullet. He couldn’t keep hiding his bruise; sooner or later, Tal would see him naked and spot that huge, swollen wound in the center of his chest. And then she’d be royally pissed that he hadn’t told her the full truth up front. He knew she was going to be more than pissed that he’d hidden something this important and vital from her, but he hoped she’d let it blow over quickly. First, he had to get enough coffee into Tal so that she wouldn’t be her usual grumpy morning self. He loved her fiercely, whether she was a grump or not. He had his warts, too, and despite them, she loved him.
“Can I make you some late breakfast?” he asked Tal, rising from the chair.
“Maybe some scrambled eggs and toast, if Daisy doesn’t mind you sharing her work space?” Tal asked.
“Come on in,” Daisy called to her son. “I’ll make room. Tal worked mighty hard for twenty-four hours straight, and I’m sure she can use some food in that tummy of hers.”
*
Wyatt knew the time had come to tell Tal a lot of things he had been holding back from her. They were in the office around four p.m., continuing to coordinate details on the ambush and raid with Artemis and the DEA. He quietly shut the door. Around five p.m., Mattie and his father, plus Cat and Jake, would be coming in for the family dinner. Tal looked up from her seat behind the desk, which was strewn with notes and several different types of radios. Wyatt drew up a stool to the edge of the desk.
Keeping his voice low, he said, “I need to tell you the rest of the story of what happened out there last night, Tal.”
She leaned back in the chair, her green eyes narrowing. “I felt like you were holding out on me. Why?” Tal demanded, folding her arms across her chest, studying him.
“Can�
�t fool a fooler, can I?” He smiled a little. “First, I wanted you awake,” he teased, reaching out to tuck several errant strands of black hair behind her ear. “Second, I wanted to do it when everyone, with the exception of Mom, was out of the house. I didn’t need extra sets of ears possibly hearing things that I didn’t want them to hear.”
Tal didn’t smile back; she was intently focused on him. “Okay,” she murmured, “what really went on out there, Wyatt?”
Wyatt launched into everything except getting shot. He wanted to broach that topic behind their closed bedroom door. She would be so pissed. Instead, he kept the focus on Mark Reuss. When he got done with the explanation, he could see Tal’s sniper mind working overtime.
“So, you let him go?”
“Yes.”
“You think he had a broken arm?”
“I’m pretty sure he did. He kept holding it against his belly to stabilize it.”
“Probably from the crash of the Jeep he was driving?”
“He wasn’t driving. He was in the front passenger seat.”
Tal scowled, slowly rubbing her brow, feeling a headache coming on. She was still sleep-deprived, and the last three hours coordinating with Artemis and the DEA in the aftermath of the raid had tested her to the max. “So? He’s somewhere in the Guadalupe Mountains?”
“Most probably, although he could have arranged a pickup with someone from the cartel at a specific spot, too.”
“He was a Force Recon Marine,” Tal said, nodding. “He knows how to form a plan and then put plans B, C, and D in place, too.”
Wyatt said, “Mattie, Sage, Mark, and I all know those mountains, the places where there’s water, the trails. Force Recon Marine training is as good as a SEAL’s, and I’m sure since he knew he was going into this ambush last night, he had all his escape routes laid out well ahead of time.”
“Wow,” Tal muttered, rubbing her brow. “This guy is a dark angel at best. He saved your life twice out there.”
“Well,” he said, giving her a warm look, “don’t forget our collective past. We all ran in a pack with one another growing up, Tal. We were like a litter of wolf pups. I like Mark. I don’t like what he’s doing now, but the kid I grew up with was a decent, caring human being.”
“And he saved your life last night,” Tal muttered, giving Wyatt a worried look.
“He did,” Wyatt rasped. “I didn’t want to tell you any of this until things got sorted out around here and settled down. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but we were both blasted by the op.”
“I understand,” Tal whispered, giving him a concerned look. “Maybe you shouldn’t be going out in the field from now on, Wyatt. You’re not training up to your normal SEAL standards, and this kind of op is the most dangerous kind.”
He could feel her concern for him. Tal loved him, and Wyatt didn’t want to jeopardize their trust and connection to one another. “I don’t like hiding things from you,” he admitted. “But this was a unique op, not the type we’re usually on.”
“There was a lot going on,” Tal agreed wearily, giving him a caring look.
Feeling guilty and knowing he had to come clean about his injuries, he said, “Let’s go to the bedroom.” He saw Tal give him a confused glance.
“Well . . . all right.” She looked at her watch. “Everyone’s going to be home in half an hour, Wyatt.”
He cupped her elbow, helping her stand. “I know,” he said, kissing her temple. “Just humor me. This won’t take long.” And it wouldn’t. He just hoped like hell Tal wasn’t going to explode with anger over his hiding the Kevlar hit.
*
Wyatt girded himself as he closed the bedroom door. He saw Tal sit on the side of the bed and lean down to rub her ankle, which he was sure was paining her. Once he’d locked the door, he shrugged out of his long-sleeved chambray shirt.
“I’m not up for sex right now,” Tal told him, frowning. “Is this why you wanted me up here, Wyatt? I’m still exhausted.”
“I know you are, darlin’, and so am I. And this isn’t about sex. I need to show you this.” He gripped the edge of the T-shirt, holding her gaze. “There’s one more thing I need to tell you about what happened out at that ravine last night, Tal. As I was skirting it, trying to get ahead of both Mark and the other soldier, things went south.”
She gave him a wary look, pushing her palms down her trousers, studying him. “What do you mean ‘went south,’ Wyatt?”
He pulled the T-shirt up and over his head.
Tal gasped, instantly on her feet, her eyes wide with shock as she stared at the deep, dark red-and-blue bruise in the center of Wyatt’s chest. She uttered a curse and then met his calm gaze. “You took a hit!” she cried, moving forward, reaching out, barely touching the swollen edges of the bruise, which was the size of a cantaloupe. “And it was right over your heart! Damn it, Wyatt, why the hell didn’t you tell me about this when it happened?” She glared up at him, gripping his arm. “You could have had a heart attack from this hit, damn you! And you couldn’t even tell me about it until just now? What the hell’s going on?”
Calmly, Wyatt stood there watching the woman he loved become shaken. Her fingertips kept barely brushing the edges of the swollen bruise, which definitely looked dawg ugly. “I’m sorry,” he rasped, lifting his hands, framing her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I took one round to the chest. I wanted to tell you, but I just didn’t feel there was any good time, Tal. I survived it. That’s all that matters.” His voice lowered, thick with feelings. “I love you, and the last thing I wanted last night was to tell you about this Kevlar hit. I knew it would really upset you.”
She slid her hands between his arms, breaking his gentle hold on her face, and stepped back. “Damn you, Wyatt! You do not hide things like this from me! I don’t give a damn how good you think your reasons are! Don’t”—she jabbed her index finger toward his shoulder—“ever do this to me again! Do you hear me?” Her voice rose in fury. “You could have died from this! That bullet was too close to your heart! I can tell by looking at this bruise that the shooter was less than twenty feet away from you.” She cursed, turning and walking away from him, her eyes dark with hurt and shock.
Wyatt pulled the T-shirt back on and picked up his chambray shirt, shrugging it over his shoulders. He had broken her trust, and it ate at his conscience like nothing else ever had. Tal paced across the room, and he could feel her mounting fury rolling off of her in waves. She wasn’t the kind of woman to lose it or start yelling or screaming. Her full lips were tight and drawn into a straight line, and the anguish glittering in her large, intelligent green eyes tore him up.
“Look,” he drawled, slowly approaching her after he buttoned up his shirt, “I’m fine. Mark stayed with me after it happened. That’s the part I didn’t tell you, for obvious reasons. He killed the man who fired point-blank at me, Tal.”
She turned. “Jesus, Wyatt! You could have fucking been killed!”
Wincing at the raw emotion in her voice, seeing how wounded she was by his keeping the information from her, he halted six feet from her, opening his hands. “Tal, I knew it was wrong to keep this from you. But put yourself in my place. There was so much shit going down last night, and at dawn this morning I did not want to add this to your worries. I knew you were stressed enough, and I didn’t want to put one more brick on your shoulders. And the whole family was there in the house, and I didn’t want them to know what had happened.” He gave her a pleading look, knowing that above all, Tal was a logical person. She’d run a huge sniper unit out of Bagram for five years, off and on, with great success. She’d commanded some of the finest Marines in the U.S. military, who were damned intelligent, independent, and competitive at a world-class level. She’d handled all of them with adroitness, using her highly developed management skills, knowledge, and experience. Would she be able to handle a personal situation in the same way? Would an “I’m sorry” be enough? Or had he permanently fractured their growing relationship
forever?
CHAPTER 8
Tal curled her fingers into fists, staring at Wyatt, who looked like a little boy who had been caught red-handed doing something wrong. She saw sadness and regret in his gray eyes, in the set of that mouth she loved to kiss so much, a mouth that knew how to love her until she screamed with pleasure.
“Damn you,” she rasped, her spine ramrod straight, tension thrumming through her.
“I deserve whatever you want to dole out to me,” he agreed, giving her an understanding look.
“I don’t care how tired I was at dawn this morning, Wyatt.” She jabbed a finger at herself. “You should have told me!”
Nodding, he said gruffly, “I made a judgment error, Tal. And I’m sorry. I knew you’d be pissed as hell because I didn’t dump this into your lap right after it happened.”
“Damn straight I’m pissed.” She limped away, going to the other side of the room, pulling the lacy white curtains aside, looking out over the corral area. Suddenly, hot tears jammed into her eyes. Tal made a disgusted sound, turning her back toward Wyatt, feeling his concern, like an invisible blanket being wrapped around her hunched shoulders. She fought the tears, fought the memories of Brian, the Marine sniper she’d fallen in love with and who’d gotten killed, that came roaring back at her. Lost in pain that had been resurrected from the past, she didn’t hear Wyatt approach.
“Hey,” he murmured, settling his hands around her drawn-up shoulders, “turn around here, Tal . . . ,” and he guided her so that he could see her expression. Tears were tracking down her face, and she refused to look at him, her mouth tight as she fought to regain control. Groaning, he rasped, “I’m sorry, Tal. I really didn’t want to hurt you like this,” and he tentatively began to draw her toward him.
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