by Sharon Dunn
“Leave me alone!” She hit the rider’s chest hard.
The rider released her. “Hey, hey.” The voice was Alex’s. “I didn’t want you to drown.”
Shivering, Morgan wiped the water from her face. She hadn’t realized that thinking about the man by her house had made her so afraid. “Jojo bolted...and I got lost.” Her voice trembled.
Alex gripped her arms above the elbow. His voice filled with compassion. “It could have happened to anyone.”
The strength of Alex’s touch and sound of his voice warmed her despite the rain.
“You were really scared there.”
“Yes, I didn’t realize how easy it was to get disoriented.” More than anything, she wished she could explain to him why she was so on edge.
“Let’s ride these horses back to the barn so we can get warmed up.”
Morgan reached for Jojo’s reins. The horse jerked away and whinnied. “I really don’t think Jojo can stand to be ridden. She’s pretty spooked, and if there is any more lightning, she’ll bolt again.”
“I understand.” Alex mounted his horse. “The storm has made her jumpy. We can lead her in.” He scooted forward in the saddle and held out a hand, indicating that she should get on his horse. Leading Jojo, she placed her foot in the stirrup and swung up behind him. She wrapped her free hand around his middle.
“Settled?”
“Yes.” Still shivering, she rested her cheek against his back. His wet hair brushed across her cheek when he turned his head.
He patted her hand as his horse lumbered forward. The steady rhythm of the horse’s steps combined with the downpour surrounded her like a song. She closed her eyes, realizing how easy it was to be close to Alex. She felt safe with him.
Ten minutes later when she peered over his shoulder, the effervescent glow from the guesthouse came into view. They’d arrived at the stable entrance. She slid off and pushed open the stable door so the horses could go in. Her wet clothes clung to her body and added five pounds of extra weight. She was shivering so badly her teeth chattered. She was freezing, but the horses had to take priority.
They pulled saddles and bridles off the horses and placed blankets over them.
Morgan rubbed Jojo’s soft nose. “Nice and cozy. Now it’s my turn to get warmed up.”
“I’m sure there’s a good fire started in the guesthouse great room if you want to come in,” Alex said.
She really didn’t have the energy to visit with the guests anymore. “I think I’ll go back to the cottage and take a nice hot shower, maybe have a cup of tea.”
“Suit yourself,” he said. He lingered for a moment. With the darkness surrounding them, she felt the pull of attraction toward this kind man.
There was so much she longed to say to him. Heartache sunk in. If only she’d met him at another time in her life.
I do care about you, Alex.
“See you in the morning.” He turned and walked toward the guesthouse.
Morgan dragged her weary body back to the cottage. She showered, letting the hot water beat on her chilled skin, then pulled on sweats. When she stepped into her bedroom, she noticed the corner of the bedspread was folded back. Something she would never do. Her heart pounded a little faster. The stack of books she kept by her bed looked askew. Had someone been in her room?
A knock sounded at her door. She moved to go answer it when something cold brushed by her bare toe. Morgan looked down as a snake slithered over her foot. Her heart seized.
“Morgan, it’s me.” Alex must be standing close to the door. His voice was loud.
She cleared her throat and shouted. “Alex!” Fear splintered the word into three syllables.
She heard the door burst open and pounding footsteps.
“In here.” She stood still, not even daring to breathe.
Alex appeared in the doorway. He looked down at the snake. “Don’t move.” He disappeared.
The snake trailed over her toes as Morgan released a shaky breath.
Alex returned a moment later with a hatchet in his hands. In one swift motion, he kneeled down, chopped the head off the snake and picked up its back end. She heard him stomp outside only to return a moment later to dispose of the head by sweeping it into a paper bag.
With her heart still pounding wildly, she stepped into the living room. She couldn’t stop shaking.
Alex came back through the front door, which he had left open. “I disposed of him.”
“What was it?” Her words came out as a harsh whisper. Feeling cold all over again, she hugged herself.
“A massasauga, pit viper.” He stepped a little closer to her.
“Is it... Is it poisonous?”
He nodded. Her knees felt wobbly as the black spots in front of her eyes multiplied. His arms surrounded her before she hit the floor. He helped her to the couch and touched her cheek. “That was quite a scare. Don’t know how it got in here. Must be a hole somewhere. I’ll have to look into that.”
Morgan felt herself going numb. She stared at the floor. “Do you get a lot of those around here?”
“Out on the trail, but not in the buildings.” Concern etched through his words. “They’re kind of shy.”
Her mind reeled. How had that snake gotten in her bedroom? She looked up at him, still trying to process what had happened. “What were you doing with a hatchet?”
“It’s from your porch, to split wood. I was going to come over and build a fire for you.”
She looked at the man in front of her, his broad shoulders and soft smile. If he hadn’t come along... “Yes, a fire would be nice.” Still in shock from what had happened, she walked toward the kitchen. “I can fix you a cup of cocoa if you like.”
Alex wadded up some newspaper from a stack and tossed it in the fireplace. Her hand trembled as she turned the burner on and placed the kettle on the stove.
She needed to tell the marshals about all that had happened today. She could hear the marshals’ argument in her head. They would say that if someone had been sent to get rid of her, why not just kill her outright? She agreed with that logic, but something was going on here. First the fire and now the snake.
Was it possible someone was trying to kill her and make it look like an accident?
She watched Alex stack the wood in a pyramid shape around the newspaper and light it. At least she had a small reprieve. She was safe as long as Alex was here with her. Yet another reason to be grateful for him.
She dreaded the long night ahead.
* * *
The fire was roaring by the time Morgan brought him a steaming cup of cocoa.
She settled in the chair by the fire. “That throws out some heat.”
He scooted back from the flames. “Yeah, it’s nice. That chill gets in your bones. Takes quite a bit to feel warmed up again.” Though she tried to hide it, Alex could tell Morgan was still upset. Her gaze darted around the room while she sat with a rigid posture.
She took a sip of her cocoa as the fire crackled. “So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” She was trying to get past her fear, but the strain in her voice was obvious.
He rose to his feet and rested his hand on the fireplace mantel. “Just more looking out for guests.” Had he been too forward in offering to build the fire for her? He didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone after the scare she’d had. And she’d invited him to have cocoa. She seemed to want him to stay for a while. “We usually try to organize a couple of group trail rides. The guests forming friendships with each other keeps them coming back.”
Morgan nodded. “Sounds like fun.”
Alex clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to talk about work. All they ever seemed to talk about was work. They’d been through a trying day together. He wanted to know her in a deeper way. If he was really hones
t with himself, that was why he’d wanted to build the fire in the first place.
Lightning lit up the front window and thunder crackled through the sky. Morgan jumped.
She seemed so on edge. He wished he could hold her, comfort her. “Not a fan of thunderstorms, huh?”
She ran her finger up and down her mug. “Me and Jojo both.”
“Sorry about that. Maybe I should have put you on Chipper’s Boy. Jojo usually isn’t that wild. Course she’s a young horse who’s probably never been in a thunderstorm.” His attempt at small talk did nothing to calm Morgan down. He remembered how she had attacked him when he’d tried to pull her out of the river. More and more, he was starting to think she’d escaped an abusive relationship. Would she even let him hold her? “I wish we could talk about something more than work.”
“Like what?” Already, she sounded guarded. She swung around, accidently knocking the cup of cocoa off the table where she’d set it. “Oh dear.” The sadness in her voice seemed overblown for a spilled cup of cocoa.
He hurried to the kitchen and grabbed two towels. “It’s no big deal, Morgan.” He tossed her one of the towels.
“But I broke the cup.” She sounded as if she was about to burst into tears.
Keeping his tone light, he tried to reassure her. “They’re easy to replace. Mrs. Stovall buys them by the crateful.”
She swiped the towel over the spilled liquid while he picked up the broken pieces of the mug. Her movements were quick and sharp. He had a feeling this was about more than a broken cup.
He rested a hand on her shoulder. “Seriously, it’s no big deal.”
She didn’t pull away from his touch but continued to stare at the floor. “I’m sorry...I just...this storm and the snake.”
“Yeah, it was a pretty action-packed day.” After tossing the shards of the mug in the garbage can, Alex reached out for the cloth Morgan held. “Let me finish this. Why don’t you sit down and catch your breath?”
“Thank you.” She met his gaze, her eyes an ocean of feelings hidden behind a veil. Without thinking, he reached up and brushed his hand lightly over her cheek. She closed her eyes, seeming to welcome his touch. He shook himself free of the magnetic power of his attraction to her. You couldn’t care about someone you didn’t know...and Morgan had expressed zero desire to reveal any part of herself to him. He focused his attention on cleaning up the mess. She scooted away and sat back in the chair.
He rose to his feet, strode back to the kitchen and rinsed out the towel.
She got to her feet and stood on the other side of the kitchen counter. “So which one of the guests comes up every weekend?”
As he wrung out the dishtowel, he could feel his irritation growing. The guests, the horses, the work that needed to be done. Their conversations were three inches deep. He wanted more.
“You know what, Morgan? It’s been a difficult day for both of us. I think I’ll go get some sleep. We’ll need to be up early in the morning.” He twisted the remaining water out of the towel and hung it up on the stove rack.
Her voice tinged with hurt. “Yes, I guess you’re right.”
He stomped toward the door. “I left a few more logs for you on the porch if you want to keep that fire going for a while.”
He flung open the door and stepped out into the rain-drenched night. As he made his way back to the guesthouse, he didn’t care that the rain soaked through his clothes again.
Why couldn’t he kill the feelings he had for her? Caring about her was such a dead end. Feeling a rising sense of frustration, he did an abrupt turn toward the stable. Morgan had him so stirred up, so confused. Being with the horses always calmed his nerves. He wasn’t ready to paint on a smile and be with the guests who were still up.
What was Morgan’s story? She sure wasn’t going to tell him. He stepped into the dim stable and breathed in the hay and horse-scented air. He had a detective friend in Des Moines. Maybe his friend could find out who Morgan Smith really was.
* * *
Morgan jerked awake. From the couch where she’d been sleeping, she could see the fire was only glowing embers. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep in the bedroom, not after that snake had been in there. She sat up and glanced toward the kitchen clock—5:00 a.m. Her sleep had been fitful and intermittent. Every gust of wind against the windows had made her jump and she had dreamt about babies being taken from their mother’s arms. Even now when she was awake their crying echoed in her head.
She sat up on the couch and hugged herself. She’d felt safe when Alex was here. Yet she’d sent him such mixed signals, he’d been angry when he left. She didn’t blame him. They couldn’t talk about anything that mattered.
She had to shut down the moment between them when he’d looked into her eyes and she thought he might kiss her. She liked him. He was a decent, good man. He deserved a woman who could tell him the truth about herself. That certainly wasn’t her.
Morgan rose and paced the floor. She’d called the marshals’ office to tell them about the fire and the snake, but Serena and Josh were off duty. The marshal she talked to was reassuring and said he would pass on the message so they could look into it.
The hardest part about witness protection was how alone she felt. She longed to talk to her father; just to hear his voice would be a comfort.
Morgan slumped back down on the couch, trying to free herself of the restlessness that plagued her. If she could just share with one other person! Though it was an hour earlier in Wyoming, her father would already be up having his cup of coffee. He kept what he called rancher’s hours. It was calving season, so his hours were even longer. Her teenage brother and sister were still at home. In an hour or so, they’d be up to help out with morning chores and catch the school bus. Seeing them in her mind’s eye, thinking about them, made her heart ache.
She pictured her father stirring his cup of percolated coffee and watching the sun come up while he planned his day. The marshals had told her to cut off all ties with her past life. Her father hadn’t heard from her in months even though he’d been informed that she was in hiding. She didn’t like the idea of causing him pain. He’d been through enough when breast cancer had taken her mother.
She picked up the phone, pressed it against her chest and closed her eyes. It would be so easy to call him. Even hearing his voice would give her the strength to continue. She slammed the phone into the cradle.
She paced the floor and then stopped to peer into her bedroom. She stared at the cut in the wooden floor where Alex had brought the hatchet down on the snake. As isolated events, the things that had happened today could be seen as accidents.
She grabbed her raincoat. Staying here didn’t feel safe anymore. She gathered a few personal items and some clothes and tossed them in her suitcase.
She dashed toward her car and pulled out on the road. She checked several times to make sure she wasn’t being followed. There was no traffic at this hour. Rain came down in a soft drizzle. She whizzed past the Come and Get It Café, where the windows were completely dark and the parking lot was empty.
Was all this loneliness and all the fear worth it? She wanted to help the investigation. She wanted to know that no more babies would be torn from their mother’s arms just because they were young and poor. She wanted Baby C and Baby Kay to be with their mothers. She wanted justice as badly as Josh and Serena did. Sometimes, though, it felt like such a high price to pay.
The windshield wipers drummed out a steady rhythm. As she drove, she came up with a plan. She’d find someplace to hide and then get in touch with the marshals.
Rain came down harder, and she strained to see through the windshield.
She had to be honest with herself; she wasn’t leaving just because there was a chance she’d been found. It was getting harder and harder to keep things from Alex. Not because he was prying like
he had been at first, but because she liked him. She wanted him to know who she was. The desire was getting harder to resist.
She focused intently on the road. Headlights filled the image in the rearview mirror. Morgan slowed down as the car crept up until it was parallel to her.
But the car didn’t zoom past. It swerved toward her.
Fear building, she steered closer to the edge of the road. The other car eased into her lane, breaking off her side mirror. Her arm muscles strained as her heart pounded. The other car tapped the door of her car. The hit was enough to send her off the road and rolling downhill.
The front of her car rammed into something hard as her upper body was propelled forward and then whipped back. Everything went black around her.
EIGHT
“So what is your help doing running off at the crack of dawn?” Ralph, one of the older guests who came almost every weekend, caught Alex by the arm on his way out of the guesthouse door.
“What are you talking about?”
“I was up early walking the grounds, keeping my old-man hours like I always do, when I saw your help take off in her car from her little house. I assumed she was on some kind of early-morning food run, but she hasn’t come back yet.”
Alex maintained a calm veneer as his mind raced. “Thanks for that information. I’ll check into it.”
As soon as he could get away, he went looking for Morgan. His first thought was that she had up and left in the night. Maybe he’d been too harsh with her or maybe whatever she was being so secretive about had caught up with her and she had to leave. The possibilities tumbled through his head as he stalked across the grounds to the caretaker’s cottage. He pounded on the door, not really expecting her to answer. Her car was not in the designated space by the cottage.
He tried her cell phone but got no answer.
He hurried over to his own car. He didn’t like the idea of losing her for whatever reason. He had to admit—if she was gone, there would be a huge hole in his life. As secretive as she was, he’d come to value spending time with her.
