“Is she going to bring Sam?” Lori asked.
“I don’t know.” The questions they asked boggled his mind. What did a dog have to do with a breakfast cereal? How had they made that connection?
Zach could only be grateful that Toni was on her way.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Yippee, she’s here.” Lisa raced to the door.
Zach’s sentiments were reflected in his daughter’s response. Before he could take the chain off the door, Lisa tried to open it.
“Wait a minute, Lisa. I need to remove the chain.”
“Hurry up,” the child commanded as she danced around. “I’m hungry.”
When he heard Toni’s soft laugh, a shaft of heat raced through him. Stepping to the door, he slid the chain out of its track. The instant he did, Lisa pulled on the knob, throwing open the door.
“Toni,” Lisa cried and ran to the woman and hugged her leg.
Zach felt like a man carrying the plague. Unwanted and unneeded.
Lisa looked up and noticed the sacks that Toni carried. “McDonald’s? Did you go to McDonald’s?”
She smiled. “Well, there is a big McDonald’s by my house and I thought you girls might like something from there instead of Froot Loops.”
Nodding vigorously, Lisa said, “Do I get pancakes? I love ’em. Lori likes the eggs. Do you have eggs?”
Toni smiled at Zach. There was laughter and joy in her eyes. “Good morning.”
“Do you need help?” he asked, pointing to the sacks.
“I left the coffee and orange juice in the car. Would you go get it?”
“You brought coffee?” He couldn’t keep the relief out of his voice. He wouldn’t be forced to drink his old, tasteless instant in the cabinet.
Her grin widened. “I thought you might want a cup.”
“You’re a mind reader.”
“Naw. I just remembered my dad wasn’t too cheerful in the mornings until he had his coffee. I thought that you might need the caffeine this morning in particular.”
He hurried out to her car and gathered up the box with the drinks in it. By the time he got inside the apartment, the girls were digging into their food.
“There’s another breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage or an Egg McMuffin. Your choice.”
An odd feeling settled in Zach’s chest. He couldn’t quite identify it, but it felt good and he didn’t question it. “I’ll take the eggs.”
They joined the girls at the table. It was odd having every chair filled. Zach paused as he looked at the faces of his children. Then his gaze met Toni’s. He tried to hide his feelings, but he had the oddest sense that she’d seen what was in his heart.
“How did the night go?” Toni asked, after swallowing a bite of her breakfast.
“Okay,” Zach mumbled, glancing at Lori. He remembered the awkward moment when he helped her into the bathroom.
“No problems?”
She sounded surprised, which annoyed him. No matter that it was true. How could a four-year-old child jerk the rug out from under a Special Forces commander?
He didn’t bother answering.
“Do you plan to go house hunting today?”
Zach glanced up from his breakfast “I thought I might ask the manager if they have an apartment in the complex with two bedrooms.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Well, I just thought you might like to raise the girls in a house.”
“Yes, but I thought—”
The phone rang. He answered it immediately, wanting to give himself time to think of an answer to Toni’s comment.
“Zach, this is Henry Watkins. We have a problem.”
“What is it?” Zach shot back.
“There’s been an accident. One of the drivers came to field number one to pick up a load of crude. He found the gauger dead at the bottom of a storage tank, and the tank from which he was to get his load was empty. We’ve got problems.”
He was right. This time there was a dead body accompanying the missing oil. He looked at the table. All three females had stopped eating and were watching him.
“All right, Henry, I’ll be right out.”
“Okay. Do you want to call the boss?”
“Yeah, I’ll contact him. Have you called the police?”
“Sure have. They’re on the way.”
“Good.” Zach hung up the phone and ran his hand through his hair.
“What’s wrong?” Toni had set her breakfast sandwich down and was intently watching him.
“There’s been an accident in field number one.”
“What kind?” Toni asked.
Her question shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. Toni knew the oil business.
He motioned for Toni to follow him into the kitchen. “One of the drivers found Wayne Thompson, the gauger, dead beside a reserve tank. I’m going to need to get out there after I talk to your dad.” He noticed an understanding flare to life in her eyes.
“What happened to the gauger?”
“That’s what we want to know.”
Zach dialed George’s home number and told him what had happened. “Yeah, I’ll meet you at the site.” Zach hung up.
The girls continued to stare at Zach. He lowered his voice. “I need to go, Toni,” he whispered. “Do you think you could take care of the girls today?”
His eyes remained oddly flat, as if expecting her to refuse him, to disappoint him as others had done in the past.
Glancing over her shoulder at the girls, Tom saw their worried expressions as they stared back. Here were two little girls who needed her, and she couldn’t turn her back on them. “All right, Zach. I’ll keep the girls today.”
His stance eased and a look of relief and surprise raced across his face. “I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
“I understand.” She grinned. “Remember who my father is.”
“I guess you do. I wish there was another solution, but this is my responsibility, my job. I’m the head of security.”
“Don’t worry, Zach. The girls will be fine. I have a class to teach at one this afternoon, but the university has a day-care center on campus. I’m very friendly with the woman who runs it. There should be no problem with dropping the girls there for a while. When you get back, call me at home.”
The girls gave her worried looks.
Toni returned to the table, leaned down, and whispered, “I think we could also pick up Sam and have him spend the afternoon with us.”
Both children nodded with enthusiasm.
At the door, Zach turned back to Toni. “I’ll try to get back as soon as possible.” As he reached for the door, he looked over his shoulder. “Bye, girls. Toni will take care of you until I get back.” Two cherubic faces nodded solemnly. He opened the door, but instead of leaving at once, Zach lingered, his gaze meeting Toni’s. “Thanks for your help.”
“No problem.”
He nodded and softly closed the door.
Toni faced the girls. “I guess it’s just us three, but we’ll find something to fill our day.”
Oddly enough, Lori and Lisa looked excited to be with her. Their response warmed Toni.
The scene at field number one was ordered chaos. The police had taped off the steel stairway above the body. The coroner took pictures, while the tanker driver watched.
Zach walked up to Henry Watkins, the field engineer, who was talking to the detective and the tanker driver. Henry introduced Zach.
The detective shook his hand. “Martin Phelps. I was questioning your driver here. He found the body.”
“And what did he say?” Zach asked.
“He says when he drove up, he honked, waiting for the gauger to appear out of the foreman’s shack, but no one answered him. So he drove his rig back to the tank. That’s where he found the body. At the bottom of the reserve tank. About that time, Henry drove up.”
Zach looked at the driver. “So, he was de
ad when you got here?”
“Yup. I didn’t see anyone around here.”
After talking to the police, Zach and Henry walked to the shack and went inside. They glanced around to see if everything was in order.
Henry looked at the top of the filing cabinet for the field’s logbooks. “Zach, I don’t see the logbooks.” Henry pulled out each file drawer in the place, searching for the records.
After a thorough search, they turned up nothing.
“Is everything okay in here?” Martin asked, walking inside.
“No. We’re missing the logbooks for this field.” Zach wondered if Martin knew that the logs were the records of the field’s weekly production, but the detective didn’t ask for clarification.
The door to the shack opened again, and the driver stuck his head inside. “We’ve got a problem. I was supposed to pick up crude out of the number three tank in this field. Well, it’s as dry as the prairie around here.”
Zach looked at Henry, then Martin. “It seems as if we have another problem.”
“And maybe a motive for murder?” Martin asked.
“Afraid so,” Zach replied.
Zach turned off the engine of his car and leaned back to look at the peaceful house beyond the well-kept lawn. Toni’s house. Inside were people waiting for him. That particular situation hadn’t occurred in a long time.
He glanced at his watch. Nine. He’d spent the entire day at the field, looking for the logbooks, going to the gauger’s house and searching it with Martin Phelps. They hadn’t found the information.
What had been obvious from the moment he’d arrived at the scene was that something was out of kilter in that field. George had shown up asking questions about what had occurred. The empty reserve tank had either been drained by some unauthorized individual, or the pump jack had gone out in the field. George had ordered a check on the equipment.
Reaching for the door handle, Zach was reminded of the cut on his side. George had demanded that they drive to see about the pump jack leading to that field. After they’d seen it, they knew the jack had burned out, causing the reserve tank to go dry. As Zach had stepped away from the pump, a corner of the iron bracing caught him on the side, tearing his shirt and causing a long, bloody gash. George had told him to go to the doctor and get it cleaned up. But Zach had decided he needed to get back to the girls. He’d had worse scrapes on missions he’d gone on.
Once out of the car, Zach heard the dog inside the house barking. Before he could knock, Toni appeared at the door.
“You look tired,” she said.
All sorts of fantasies raced through his brain—dangerous thoughts that he couldn’t give in to. “It was a long day,” he answered, stepping into the foyer. Sam greeted him; then, after obviously satisfying himself that Zach was no threat, the dog loped down the hall.
Looking around, Zach asked, “Where are the girls?”
“Asleep. If you want to follow Sam, he’s in the room with Lisa and Lori.”
Zach walked down the hall and looked into the room where the girls slept. The dog settled on the floor at the foot of the bed.
“Why don’t you leave them there for the night? Lori was very tired, so I put both girls to bed. They went to sleep right away.”
He didn’t want to believe she cared about the girls. Yet, it was there in her gaze.
“They’ll be all right tonight,” she assured him.
“Yeah, you’re right.” When he turned to go, he heard Toni gasp.
“You’re hurt, Zach.”
“It’s nothing.”
She touched his arm. “Why don’t you let me put something on it? You don’t want it to get infected.”
“It’s nothing.”
She gave him a dark look. “There’s no reason for you to be macho about it. Let me take care of it. Besides, now you have two little girls depending on you, and you can’t afford not to take care of yourself.”
Zach couldn’t remember the last time he’d been scolded about anything. He found it amusing. “yet, ma’am.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve handled harder cases than you, Zachary Knight. After a lifetime of dealing with my dad, I believe I know how to handle your type.”
“My type?”
“Pigheaded males.”
He grinned. “Why don’t you lead the way to where you want me?”
She walked to the bathroom and turned on the light. As Zach came toward her, she noticed that he limped slightly. When he saw the direction of her gaze, he softly said, “It’s an old injury. It acts up now and then.”
From her expression, Zach knew she wanted to question him about his limp. It was a touchy subject for him, the reason he’d left the military. He’d thought he’d dealt with it. But he knew he didn’t want to talk about it. He gave her his best I-don’t-want-to-talk look.
Pointing to the closed toilet seat, she said, “Take off your shirt and sit there.”
He didn’t argue; he simply obeyed. When he slipped off his shirt and laid it on the tub, her eyes widened. She stepped around him and gently cleaned the wound. Her touch was as light as a butterfly’s, but oddly enough, Zach’s body reacted violently to it. His mind wasn’t concentrating on how the wound hurt. He had more basic thoughts consuming his brain.
“How did you do this?” she asked.
He explained.
“Why didn’t you go to the doctor?”
He glanced over his shoulder. Her lips were inches away, and he had the stupid urge to lean closer and cover her mouth with his. “It isn’t bad.”
Her brow shot up. “Only for you macho tough guys is it minor.” Her sarcasm wasn’t lost on him.
“I’ve gotten worse and had to continue.”
“Ah, yes, that military thing.” She squirted antibacterial ointment on the wound, then pulled a sterile pad out of a box and placed it on the cut.
“Do you have something against the military?” he asked.
Tearing off strips of tape, she shook her head. “Not a thing.”
After she secured the pad, she stepped back. “That should take care of it.” Her eyes met his and heat raced through his body. He wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms and kiss her.
She wet her lips and all the air left his lungs. Zach reached out and touched her chin with his fingertips.
“Thanks for taking care of that,” he softly said. Temptation yawned before him.
The pupils of Toni’s eyes dilated. “No problem.”
He felt the heat of her breath brush over his thumb. Slowly, his hand came to rest on her neck. Every beat her heart took thundered through him.
He was going down in flames, and every instinct of self-preservation screamed at him to stop. Dropping his hand, he stood up, which only made the situation worse. His chest was inches from her breasts.
“I’ll leave you to get dressed. Are you hungry? I’ve got some leftover chicken.”
What he needed to do was get the hell out of here. “I’m fine.”
She nodded and walked out of the room.
Zach took a deep breath. What had just happened? Why had he suddenly lost all sense of reason and nearly jumped off the cliff again?
What he needed to do now was put on his shirt and get out of this house before his hormones overrode his good sense.
“Have you hidden the logbooks?”
“I’ve got them in a secure place.” The man paced around the living room. “I don’t know why you had to kill Wayne. He was a big help.”
“He was turning chicken on us. Apparently, Zachary Knight had been nosing around, asking questions. Wayne wanted to stop stealing and lay low for a while. When I told him that things were under control, he didn’t believe me. He didn’t want to cooperate anymore. It was just a matter of time before he would have been spilling his guts and dragging us down with him. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“What if the cops discover he was killed?”
“I made it look like it was an accident. No one will eve
r know the difference.”
Fear laced the man’s eyes. “I hope you’re right.”
Chapter 4
Zach stopped at an all-night diner on his way home. What he really wanted was a good stiff belt of whiskey, but he needed to think clearly and alcohol wouldn’t help. Coffee would.
The waitress showed him to a booth and asked if he needed anything to go with his coffee. Zach read the invitation in her eyes, but he wasn’t interested.
“Just coffee,” he replied.
The woman’s smile disappeared, and she left. Within a minute, she returned with a cup and a pot of coffee. Zach nodded his thanks and picked up the drink. It tasted like they’d been soaking old shoes in the brew, but it was strong and filled with caffeine.
It appeared his entire life was going to hell with the speed of a rocket from a launcher. Smelling the fragrance of Toni’s hair while she gently cleaned his side had been a worse torture than anything the terrorists in South America had dished out when he’d been caught helping George Anderson escape from his kidnappers. Zach had been prepared for their torture. But the soft scent that seemed to be so much a part of Toni had slipped under his guard, going straight into his heart. He’d been tempted to pull her into his arms and let his lips feast on hers.
And he wouldn’t have wanted to stop there. But it was the strength of that reaction that had scared the fire out of him. The last time he’d felt anything remotely like that, he’d ended up married to the woman and living in hell for several years after. It was a mistake he didn’t intend to repeat again. And since avoiding marriage had been a guiding force in his life these past few years, why all of a sudden had he forgotten it?
He took another gulp of the bitter brew.
Toni Anderson. A vision of her formed in his brain...her soft blue eyes, kissable mouth and rich reddish brown hair that curled around her face, making her look like a teenager. But her body, and his, testified that she was a full-grown woman.
He cursed. That’s all he needed in addition to all the other changes in his life—a libido that was out of control. It was a feeling he didn’t like.
It had been a hell of a day. First waking up to the girls peeking over the bed at him, their faces a combination of curiosity and worry. Lisa had wanted to wake him, but Lori had not supported the idea. He guessed the girls were still frightened of him.
Suddenly a Family Page 4
