The Lonesome Lawmen Trilogy

by Pauline Baird Jones

  She had heard that sleep deprivation can make you do weird things. Obviously she had heard correctly. Now was the time to stop the madness, to tell him she had changed her mind and would prefer to run away and hide somewhere and she should do it now before her ears popped again.

  She peeked at Matt, sitting next to her like something hewn out of granite, except for the slight frown pulling down his dark eyebrows. Granite was supposed to be good rock, very hard. He could be its poster guy. She had only been in his company just over half a day and already she could tell how annoyed he was by how far his eyebrows dipped.

  When granite moved, she wasn’t ready. He arched one brow in a silent query and gave her one more reason not to give up. There was just so much she didn’t know about rock. It wouldn’t hurt to enlarge her knowledge a bit. If she ever did get home, she could be sure of one thing. The soggy swamp land of New Orleans was seriously deficient in hard stuff.

  “You don’t by any chance play poker, do you?” Luke took his eyes from the road long enough to grin at her.

  “A little.” One of her characters had been a compulsive gambler.

  “Strip poker?” he asked, one brow arching in hope.

  Beside her Matt stirred uneasily. “Luke—”

  “It sounds diverting, but I think I’d have to watch it first, see how it’s done.” She smiled demurely at Luke. Matt chuckled. It was a nice sound, just enough rumble, hardly any gravel and lightly sun-warmed.

  He was a nice man, a good man trying to do good things in a world that often wasn’t good or sympathetic to the good. She was, she realized, more worried about him than herself. He was so determined to make things right, so idealistic in a tough, no-nonsense way. Sometimes determination wasn’t enough to stop the evil that men do. She ought to know.

  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

  It was from the book of Matthew. She didn’t usually like symbolism, but this time it did seem like a good omen.

  They stopped in Boulder so Dani could beef up her personal items for what could be a long haul. Matt looked at her when she spotted a purse display and stopped to buy one. The gesture was more defiant than useful, since she didn’t have much to put it in. It made Dani feel more connected to life. The only other stop was for gasoline. Luke stayed in the car with Dani while Matt paid with cash so Hayes couldn’t track their credit card use. While they waited, Luke beat a tattoo on the steering wheel in time with the country song playing on the radio. He turned suddenly and asked, “Why do I have a feeling you’ve got eyes for my little brother?”

  “Why would you think I have eyes for your little brother?” It surprised her she wasn’t uncomfortable with him or his question. There was something steady and solid about him, like a teddy bear. A great big teddy bear, who just happened to pack a gun.

  “Maybe it’s the way you watch him?”

  Dani shrugged. “How could I not watch him? He has a great butt. For that matter, so do you.”

  That surprised a laugh out of him, and a slight blush. His eyes stayed worried. “Matt’s marriage—”

  “—broke up because he’s job obsessed. And no, I don’t have illusions that I can fix him. I’m a romance writer, not a masochist.”

  Luke laughed again. “I’m glad to hear it. I like you. I’d hate to see you get hurt. Not that he’d mean to. Matt, well, he’s just not into personal. Screws his concentration. Can’t have it screwed when lives depend on you. He’ll do his best for you, we both will—but he’ll do it from a nice, safe distance.”

  He was only confirming what she already knew. Now if she could just convince her body to quit going on hormone alert when he was around. The problem, she found, was that thinking about not thinking about him had the same effect on her as thinking about him, as evidenced by the heat creeping up the inside of her skin. She decided a change of subject was in order. A blush right now would send the wrong message. “What about you? How long have you been keeping women at a distance?”

  Luke acknowledged her bull’s-eye with a smile that was tinged with sad. “Since my wife died a few years ago.”

  “I’m sorry.” She covered his hand gripping the steering wheel. She had learned from her own loss that talking about the person helped, even if it hurt. “How?”

  “Ovarian cancer. Seems like one minute we were talking about starting a family, the next I’m looking at a headstone with Rosemary’s name on it.”

  “Rosemary for remembrance. She must have been a lovely person.”

  “Yeah.” He reversed the grip of their hands. “How did you know?”

  “You flirt the same way I do,” Dani admitted, “with the surgical gloves on.”

  “Either you have good instincts or you’ve been there, too.”

  “Been there, done that, and bought the tee shirt, I’m afraid.” Dani gave him a wry smile. “At least I’ve been able to turn angst into a marketable skill.”

  He got her hand again, raised it to his mouth. “You’re one tough lady, Louise.”

  The passenger door opened.

  “Am I interrupting?” Matt’s face was as inscrutable as ever but his tone was edged with something sour.

  Luke kissed Dani’s hand before releasing it, then grinned at his brother in a way meant to provoke. “I don’t think so, little brother, but if you do start to get in the way, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

  Dani bit her lip and stared straight ahead as Matt clambered into the cab beside her.

  “Uh,” she cleared her throat. “Is it much further?”

  “Not much. Little bit more than an hour.” Luke reached for the gear shift between her legs, bringing his face close to hers in the process. He grinned, then winked. “If you’re tired, feel free to use my shoulder.”

  Next to her Matt jerked, emitting a sound suspiciously like a snort. The lonesome lawman wasn’t as cool as he looked. It wouldn’t change what they both had to do, but it was nice to know.

  “Thanks, I will,” she said, settling back in the seat between the rock and his soft-hearted big brother. Despite the guy/girl complications it wasn’t a bad place to be.

  If she had been alone, she would have started humming. As it was, she just let the words flow through her head.

  Through many dangers, toils and snares

  I have already come.

  Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far.

  And grace will lead me home.

  Grace and a couple of lonesome lawmen in tight jeans. Almost sounded like one of those sad country songs.

  * * * *

  Hayes slid into Kirby’s apartment with a silent tread, then stopped, his senses stretched out for signs of life other than his own. The man watching outside hadn’t posed much of a problem, though it disturbed him that Kirby had been expecting him. He was proving to be an adept adversary. If the game had been about anyone but Willow, he might have enjoyed this contest of wits.

  His gaze shifted from side to side, his nostrils twitching as he tested the air for signs of Willow, while his eyes took in data for his brain to process about the man who had her.

  Everything was orderly, neat, completely male. No sign of feminine occupation in either bedroom. He lived, Hayes knew, with his older brother, a widower whose wife had died of ovarian cancer. Amazing the information available on the Internet these days. Used to be much harder to dig it out.

  Hayes completed his first pass through the apartment and frowned. Was he wrong? It wasn’t Kirby’s job to guard his Willow, but Andersen didn’t have her. Or anyone on his team. They were all at the office trying to set up an out of state transfer for her. He couldn’t let them do that. Someone had to know where she was. The only someone that made sense was Kirby, who hadn’t come into the office since the explosion yesterday.

  It wasn’t like him. He had been there almost round-the-clock since the initial strike on the safe house. A look at his log in/log out patterns for the last year showed a similar dedication to
the job. This wasn’t a guy who missed work in the middle of the week. He wasn’t home either. He could be on another case since Willow had showed up. Somehow he doubted it. He wasn’t the kind of the guy to back off until the fat lady had sung her heart out.

  Hayes stood in the living room and turned slowly, his eyes looking for anything, any place he hadn’t looked. He almost passed it by again.

  The refrigerator. If Willow had been here—

  Bingo. Diet Dr. Pepper. Her odd addiction was useful for now.

  Okay. She had been here. Where had he taken her?

  He started searching again, but this time he wasn’t looking for Willow. He was looking for clues to the man who had her. In Kirby’s bedroom, Hayes went methodically through his closet. And learned that Kirby liked much the same things he did without discovering where he might take Willow. He sat down on the bed, fighting past a rising tide of pain, frustration and the clock in his head telling him he was running out of time.

  This was a dead end. That was clear, though not a complete wash. He had learned much about his enemy. He gathered himself together, it was getting harder and harder to keep going. He put his hands on either side, he needed to push up against the exhaustion dogging him, and felt something hard under the blanket. The tingle along his nerve endings told him it was important. This was what he had been looking for.

  When he pulled out the album and it fell open to a picture of Kirby standing in front of a mountain cabin, he knew it was what he was looking for. He even knew, within a few miles, where the cabin was. How could he not know, when it was his mountain rising in the background?

  Kirby had taken Willow right where Hayes needed her to be.

  He was so grateful, he might not kill him.

  Unless he got in the way.

  TWENTY-TWO

  “Here we are.” Luke shut the motor off and looked at Matt, then down at Dani who was slept against Matt’s side. “I’ll go open up while you wake Louise.”

  Matt nodded. Each breath she took was like Chinese water torture against his resolve. He was only human, all too only human. Lucky for him, falling asleep was such a good deterrent. Unlucky for him he had to wake her up.

  He brushed her shoulder. “We’re here.”

  Her struggle up through layers of exhaustion was painful to watch. She was too tired. How could she do this? How could she face down Hayes like this?

  The lashes making half moons against her white cheeks fluttered, then lifted. Her eyes were green and foggy, bedroom eyes, that they reached deep into his gut and pressed all the wrong buttons. He swallowed, his throat dry. “We’re here.”

  Above Long’s Peak, the gold sun was making signs it might set. They should have gotten up here sooner, if not for the stop in Boulder to buy her some things. He had almost lost patience with her when she lingered over buying and stocking a purse. Been ready to object, when something in the way she’d run her hand across the leather surface made him hesitate. For some reason, it seemed important to her. Weird, but if it helped her do what had to be done, he wasn’t going to complain. Back in the truck, she had removed the paper stuffing and stowed what she bought, tucked it against her side, and then disarmed him by falling asleep on his shoulder. Matt had endured this enjoyable torture because he hoped she would get rested, but her sleep remained as restless as the night before.

  “Here?”

  “The cabin.”

  “Oh.” She turned her head, her body still nestled against his side, and examined her surroundings.

  Sometimes the mountain wasn’t too welcoming, sometimes it was downright hostile. Right now, at the approach of evening, Mother Nature was playing it cool. Matt liked her best when she was cool. He knew Dani wasn’t wild about heights, so he was glad she was seeing this when the gold from the sun was making the color of sky, rock and trees as rich and crisp as the air going in their lungs. There was a majesty in the rugged sweep of rock that kind of lengthened the view, helped put things in perspective when life got too real, too close. Cut big things down to a more manageable size. Up here, even Hayes didn’t seem that important.

  While Luke paused at the foot of log-hewn steps to stretch his tired muscles, Matt let Dani quietly soak in his mountain.

  She sighed. “It’s very high, isn’t it?”

  He looked down at her. “High? You, a writer, see one of the most spectacular views in the area and all you can find to say is that it’s high?”

  She regarded him for a long moment, then looked at Luke, bending to unlock the door. “Some of it’s inspiring.”

  Women. Who could understand them? Who would want to? He noticed Luke was having trouble with the lock and she was still looking. “Luke’s not over his wife’s death yet.”

  “Really?” She sat up and looked at him, something in her eyes that made him uneasy. “Luke warned me against you, too.”

  Outrage roared through him. “What’d he say?”

  “That you’d do your best for me from a nice, safe distance.”

  “Oh.” He stared at her, felt something inside him shift, something important that shouldn’t be shifting. “He’s right. I will.”

  “I knew that.”

  “You did, did you?” She was doing that woman thing again, poking around in his head, figuring things out, and then looking wise about it.

  “It’s all right. I’m not looking to mess with this lonesome lawman thing you’ve got going here.” She gestured out the window. “I know I don’t fit in here. Besides, I’ve already driven one guy to drink. And yes,” her smile was slight, but dangerously tender, “it is very beautiful, but way too high for my blood. I’m sea level. You’re sky level.”

  It should have made him feel better. If you took out the female variations, it could be the standard guy, “I’m not looking for a committed relationship” speech. He realized she wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was staring straight ahead, her hands restless in her lap.

  “For some reason my hormones would like our twain to meet somewhere between my sea and your sky. You’ve picked up on this and it’s put you in a difficult position. You’ve been assigned to look out for me not provide copy for my next book.”

  How to feel like a bastard in one easy lesson. “Dani—”

  “Please let me finish.” Her hands curled into fists. “I just want you to know that I feel the same way you do about this thing. I may get the occasional urge to jump your bones, but I’m a grownup and not so quick to jump as I used to be. Your bones are quite safe. All I want, need—” She stopped. “Get me home, please?”

  “Okay.” Why was it, that when a woman gave you the space you asked for, it became the one thing you didn’t want? Would she ever do or say something he could see coming? In the silence, he felt his conscience telling him she deserved better than a terse, okay. “Dani?”

  “Yes?” She stopped sliding off the seat, but she didn’t look at him.

  “It wasn’t just you.” He rubbed the back of his head and shifted on his seat. “It was me, too. I’m having trouble with it, too.”

  “Thank you.” There was a short silence, then she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, a tiny smile tugging at the edges of her mouth. “They say confession is the first step in overcoming temptation.”

  “What’s the next step?”

  She gave a tiny shrug. “Joseph fled Potipher’s wife, but we can’t do that.”

  “No, we can’t.” There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

  “You guys going to sit in there all night?” Luke called from the open door.

  He would like to, Matt realized, he would like to sit here with her and watch the moon come up. When his hormones first started letting him know they were there, he’d lie in bed at night dreaming about the front seat of a truck on a moonlight night, dream about unwrapping the mystery of a pretty girl. There’d be plenty of moonlight tonight, but he wouldn’t be spending it in the front seat of a pickup truck unwrapping Dani.

  “We’re coming.” He pushed ope
n his door and went around and opened the door for Dani. Some things didn’t change near as much as you’d like them to. The dreams hadn’t. Neither had the timing.

  It was still off.

  * * * *

  Timing was everything, Hayes decided, staring at the photo of the cabin he had taken from Kirby’s apartment. The chair he sat in rocked, keeping time with his thoughts and fidgeting feet. As soon as he grabbed her, the pursuit would begin. They would need time, more time than typical because Willow was a sea level greenhorn in the mountains. The hike would break her, then remake her. That took time.

  How strong was she?

  I bend, not break.

  Well, there was breaking and breaking. She would make it. She had to. She always did what she had to.

  They would need supplies. And there was the problem of Copeland. He was hunting hard. Couldn’t let him mess up things with Willow. Like a heartbeat, the pain in his head picked up the pace. He pressed a palm to its center, then pulled a sheet of paper toward him and started making a list of what he needed to do and how. Copeland was at the top.

  * * * *

  “I’ve never seen moonlight like this.” Dani stared into the night, snug in the bastion of Matt and Luke’s cabin. This dark didn’t bother her. It hid the steep terrain, let her pretend it was just a place, not a state of being.

  “Where’s the moonlight you usually see?” Luke bent to pick up a poker next to the huge fireplace.

  “New Orleans.”

  “The Big Easy. Night is different without city lights screwing it up.” Luke poked at the fire, then set the poker to one side and picked up his beer. “Anybody waiting back there for you?”

  She turned around and leaned against the window frame, the night at her back now. “A few friends, my next book, a new breed of mosquito.”

  He laughed. “I can see where you’d miss that.”