The Private Bodyguard

by Cowan, Debra

  “Since I got there last year.”

  “You always could fix anything,” she said, her lips curving.

  Not us, he thought. Her smile still pushed his buttons, made him itch to get his hands on her. Hoping to hide his reaction, he glanced out the window. He didn’t want to talk about him. He wanted to know what had been going on in her life. “How are Terra and Jack?”

  Presley’s first female fire investigator was one of Meredith’s best friends. She and her husband, Jack Spencer, had become good friends to Gage, too.

  Meredith accelerated past a semitruck. “They’re doing great. They have a baby now, Elise.”

  Gage had never thought about having babies with Meredith, but he thought about it now.

  “She’s a little over a year old.”

  “That’s nice. Before I went into Witness Security, I ran into Terra at a fire investigator seminar, so I knew she was pregnant. How’s Robin?”

  Meredith’s other close friend was a highly regarded cop on the Presley P.D.

  “She’s well. She’s a detective now. Last year, she was hurt in a fire.”

  “How badly?”

  “Luckily she wasn’t burned. Her leg was gashed by some falling debris, badly enough to need quite a few stitches.”

  Gage shifted in the corner of the seat, trying to keep pressure off his injured shoulder. His gaze fixed on Meredith’s face, the creamy skin he knew was velvety soft. All over. The need to touch her was even worse than it had been this morning. “She ever get married?”

  “No.” Meredith shook her head emphatically. “I don’t think she ever will after what happened.”

  “Can’t say I blame her. Her fiancé jilting her right before the ceremony probably doesn’t make her inclined to get serious about anyone.”

  Meredith nodded. “It’s been almost five years and she still doesn’t know which of Kyle’s groomsmen convinced him that she was the worst person he could marry.”

  “Brutal.”

  “It’s horrid. At least that didn’t happen with—”

  Us. He knew what she’d been about to say. Remembering the stark pain in Meredith’s eyes when they had split up, Gage figured what he had done had hurt her just as badly.

  She filled the awkward pause. “Your grandparents got a new dog.”

  He grinned. “How does Rex like that?”

  Regret flashed across her face. “Rex died about three months ago.”

  “Oh.” The news about his bird dog jarred him. “That had to be really hard on Gramps.”

  She nodded. “Fifteen years is a long time to have a dog. He was a member of your family.”

  Gage stared out the window. Rex, gone. One more thing that had happened without Gage knowing. He and Gramps had trained the black Labrador together. The animal had been a big part of Gage’s growing up. His chest felt hollow. Not only because of losing the dog, but also because of everything he’d missed.

  There were chunks of his life he would never get back. People he might never see again. People he’d let down. He should’ve been there for his grandparents, for Meredith. Failing his grandparents could be blamed on his having to go into hiding, but not his problems with Meredith. No, he’d screwed up their relationship before his supposed death.

  Talking with her, being with her, put a sharp bite in his blood. Over the past year, he’d been able to numb himself to some extent, he realized. Since seeing Meredith again, his body had been slowly unthawing. Spending time with her brought back every emotion he’d locked away—want, need, regret, loneliness. Love. He hadn’t been aware of how completely he’d shut himself off. How empty he’d felt.

  As they headed east, then south through Arkansas on U.S. 71, he asked questions about some of the arson cases he’d seen reported over the past few months in Presley’s online newspaper. She told him Terra Spencer now had another full-time fire investigator, Collier McClain, whose first case had been a serial arsonist-killer.

  They talked about changes in Presley and other friends they shared. As best she could, Meredith answered his questions about his grandparents, about Aaron and Gage’s fellow fire investigators. All things he should’ve gotten to experience. Life—his life—had gone on without him. As had the woman sitting beside him.

  Looking at her, aching at the memory that he hadn’t been able to touch her the way he wanted this morning, he’d never felt more alone.

  They reached Texarkana just after dark. Along with the notes and photos, Gage intended to pick up some clothes at his house and if they were careful, purchase anything else they needed from a store here.

  So far, there had been nothing on the news about him or Meredith so Gage felt Ken Ivory was handling everything the way he’d promised.

  Gage directed her to an older neighborhood of small frame houses and had her park around the block. They walked through the field that ran behind a row of fenced backyards. This way, there was less chance of being noticed, especially by his widowed neighbor, Ralph, a former Army Ranger.

  When they reached Gage’s yard, he helped Meredith over the four-foot chain-link fence, catching sight of Ralph’s tabby cat prowling the length of the back porch. Light from the fat white moon showed the back bedroom window through which Gage had escaped was still open. Fishing his keys out of his pocket, he opened the patio door and stepped inside.

  He froze, his grip tightening on the semiautomatic he and Meredith had brought with them from her lake house. “Sonova—”

  He scanned the living area. The dark tweed couch cushions were slashed, the drawers of both end tables had been yanked out and dumped, lamps broken. Shock shifted to apprehension.

  “Stay here,” he whispered over his shoulder. He checked the other rooms. Once convinced they were alone, he returned to Meredith. “The whole house is torn up like this.”

  She followed him across the living room and down a hallway littered with linens and books and papers. They passed one ransacked bedroom before reaching his. Clothes were thrown from his closet and drawers. His mattress was shoved half off the bed.

  “What were they looking for?”

  Unaware that she had eased up on his right side, Gage jerked toward her.

  “Sorry,” she breathed at his abrupt movement.

  “Maybe whoever broke in was looking for my notes or photos. Maybe info on me. Hell if I know.”

  “Do you think it was Julio?”

  “Could’ve been. Or Nowlin could’ve trashed everything before leaving here and finding us at your lake house.”

  Gage moved to the solid oak headboard and tried to pull it away from the wall with his left hand.

  Meredith made an exasperated sound and hurried to the other side of the bed to help him.

  “Thanks.” Shoulder aching, he felt his way down the frame toward the lower half then pushed in on a section. A square piece popped out and Gage removed it. Anyone who didn’t know about the hiding place he’d cut into the wood wouldn’t notice anything unusual.

  Relief pumped through him when his hand closed over the small notebook and fire-scene photos. He passed them to Meredith. “Would you hold these while I grab some clothes?”

  Taking a duffel bag from his closet floor, he stuffed in sweatshirts, jeans and socks. He stepped into a small bathroom and grabbed his shaving kit. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They left the same way they’d come, hurrying silently across the crackling winter grass and back to the SUV. The silence, the heavy chill coiled Gage’s muscles tight. And it wasn’t lost on him that his wrecked house mirrored the shambles his life had become.

  At the edge of town, they stopped at a discount store for some clothes, then a convenience store for gas. Impatient and edgy, Gage knew he wouldn’t relax until they reached the cabin. He and Meredith took turns in the restroom then she filled the gas tank. When he protested, she said, “You’re moving as if you’re hurt. Someone might notice that, but they won’t notice me.”

  In an effort to hide her face in case there were work
ing security cameras around, she wore one of Gage’s baseball caps he’d found under the seat. He stayed in the SUV, scrutinizing the driver’s side where she stood and the passing vehicles on the street beyond.

  As they continued on their way, Gage kept watch on the highway behind them.

  Features pinched with concern, Meredith glanced over. “Do you see anything suspicious?”

  “Not yet.”

  “We weren’t followed down here, so maybe we’re in the clear.”

  “Maybe.” He wasn’t assuming anything.

  The image of his ransacked house looped through his brain, a grim reminder of the danger they could still face.

  The traffic wasn’t heavy, but it was steady. When they crossed the border into Arkansas, they began to see more semi trucks than automobiles. Some truck trailers were loaded with lumber or machinery, some were empty.

  Gage and Meredith made it through DeQueen, Arkansas, without spotting a tail. There was about twenty-four miles to go until Broken Bow, then another thirteen or so miles to the Greens cabin. The tight pressure across his chest eased. They would be all right.

  But when they stopped at the light on Park Drive to turn toward the lake, his attention was caught by a distinctive pair of round headlights. Exactly like some he’d seen on an older car at the convenience store in Texarkana.

  As he and Meredith started out of town, Gage swore.

  Her gaze jerked to him. “What? What is it?”

  The vehicle held its position a few car lengths back. He touched Meredith’s leg. “We’re being followed.”

  She drew in a sharp breath, looking in the rearview mirror. “Do you think it’s Julio?”

  “That’s a good possibility. Don’t change your speed.”

  “Okay.” Her voice was thin. “What do we do?”

  Gage’s hands curled into fists. He’d been vigilant about watching for anyone following them. How had the tail suddenly appeared? It didn’t matter. They had to get rid of him. “We can’t go back to the Greens’ and I don’t know if we could lose the tail in Broken Bow. The town’s too small.”

  For a long minute, neither spoke. The silence turned heavy with apprehension.

  “We need a plan B,” Meredith said.

  “I’m fresh out of those.”

  “I might have an idea.” She glanced in the rearview mirror.

  Gage was glad to see the tail hadn’t gotten closer. “What?”

  “We’ll go past the lake, past Smithville and take one of the logging roads into the mountains. If the person following us manages to make it as far as the logging road, they won’t make it much farther.”

  It was a good idea. Gage had hunted in the heavily forested area with her brothers and knew how easy it was to get lost on roads that were often no more than lumber-truck ruts. “It’s really difficult to find your way out, even in the daylight.”

  “Not if you know where you’re going.”

  True. Her brothers, as familiar with the area as Meredith, had managed to get in and out of their hunting camp just fine.

  “All right. Let’s lose him.”

  She nodded, her face ghost-pale in the darkness. Gage bit back a curse. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but as long as she was with him, it wasn’t.

  As they passed the lake and traffic thinned, the speed limit increased. And the car trailing them closed in. Meredith hoped she could lose him. She thought she could.

  Fear was a cold lump in her throat. She focused on keeping at least one vehicle between them and their pursuer as they passed the entrance to Beavers Bend State Park, then a lake area called Stevens Gap. Meredith drew on her years of E.R. experience to stay calm when what she wanted to do was scream, pretend none of this was happening.

  She thought she could hear Gage’s heart pounding as loudly as hers. He kept watch out the back window while Meredith monitored the rearview mirror. In the flash of a passing semi’s lights, she saw the grimness, the guilt on his face, and knew he blamed himself. Meredith was starting to see the price he’d paid the past year, was still paying.

  A road sign listed the upcoming towns of Smithville, Bethel and Battiest, then a billboard-sized sign welcomed them to the Ouachita National Forest. The highway curved and they were heading east. The moon was bright and in the distance, Meredith could see the night-draped forested mountains.

  The tail still followed. Meredith accelerated, driving over the Eagle Fork Creek bridge. Hands clammy, chest tight, she drove through the small town of Watson, then turned right toward the cemetery, slowing when the road became dirt and gravel and holes. Coming to a fork in the road, she again went right.

  There were huge gouges in the red dirt road, deep enough to crack teeth if they hit one going too fast. The SUV’s lights were a beacon to the person behind them, but she couldn’t turn them off, not yet.

  The forest of trees along both sides of the road blocked most of the moonlight. Gage’s vehicle bumped and rattled as the road twisted and climbed.

  He spoke loud enough to be heard over the noise. “We could get lost, just like him.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I never could get my bearings when we came here to hunt.”

  That was because the only landmarks this far into the mountains were trees and more trees. One might be marked with a band of white or red spray paint, but the next one would be, too. “Let’s hope whoever’s behind us can’t find their way, either.”

  Meredith put the SUV in four-wheel drive and started up a steep incline. She could see the car keeping pace behind her and she was nearly frantic to put more distance between them. At least that person couldn’t travel any faster than her and Gage.

  Deep, rock-pitted ditches ran along the road. Suddenly, she steered into one. Their vehicle bounced hard enough to slam her and Gage’s heads into the ceiling. Hissing out a harsh breath, he grabbed the dash to steady himself.

  “Sorry.” Meredith searched for a narrow opening and took it, driving up a small rise and over felled tree limbs, decades-old cushions of pine needles and twigs, mounded mud. When the ground leveled out, she stopped, killing the lights and the engine.

  Their labored breathing was loud in the abrupt silence.

  The quiet was palpable. The grind of a car engine sounded over the chirps and rustles of night animals. Bright lights speared through the trees, but didn’t reach them. Chest tight, Meredith fought the urge to grab hold of Gage’s hand, hoping they couldn’t be seen in the dense growth. The car passed, the engine’s rumble faded.

  Meredith and Gage stayed frozen, waiting. Soon, she heard a car coming back toward them. Was it the one that had been following them? Had they been found?

  Seconds pricked her nerves like needles. When the vehicle drove past their hiding place and she saw it was the car that had been tailing them, she felt Gage’s relief as strongly as her own.

  Neither of them spoke until they could no longer hear the automobile. He reached over and squeezed her waist. “You did it.”

  Tension drained out of her and she slouched down in the seat, boneless. “For a minute, I was afraid he might find us.”

  “Me, too.” Gage looked at the surrounding woods. “Do you think we could get out of here using the other route you know?”

  “Not in the dark, and we can’t go back the way we came. If that guy manages to make it to the highway, he could be waiting down there.”

  “So…”

  “So?” Meredith glanced over, realization dawning at the same moment he spoke. She opened her mouth to tell him not to say it, but he beat her to it.

  “Looks like we’ll be sleeping together again.”

  She rolled her eyes at his choice of words, while trying desperately to keep the panic off her face.

  Her with Gage. In much closer quarters than a king-size bed. This morning, he’d seen how much he still affected her. She had to be careful.

  It didn’t take long for a chill to settle in the car and the windows to frost from their breath. The
y moved to the backseat and laid it flat to give them room to sleep. They traded places so Gage could rest on his good side if he wanted.

  From behind the driver’s seat, he broke the silence. “If we’re going to be here all night, we should use the sweatshirts we bought earlier.”

  “Those blankets we took from the lake house are still in here, too.” As he pulled the new garments out of the bag, Meredith stretched to the back corner and retrieved the blankets, passing one to him. She slipped off her coat to pull on the sweatshirt.

  He tossed something soft and white at her. “I figure you’re going to want a pair of these socks, too.”

  Despite his teasing tone, they stared at each other in tense silence. Her feet were always cold in the winter. When she and Gage had been together, she would filch a pair of his socks to wear over her own.

  Judging from the knowing glitter in his eyes, he was remembering, as she was, how she would beg him to rub her feet and warm them up. She didn’t want to think about their past. Spending the night with him was going to be hard enough.

  Pulse hitching, she drew her blanket around her shoulders, searching for something to say, anything to prevent other reminders of their past. “You know, there are several Vietnam veterans who live up here.”

  After giving her a long, measuring look, Gage leaned against the back of the driver’s seat. “Your brothers mentioned that the last time we were here.”

  “No one ever sees them. I don’t know if they ever leave the mountain. It’s sad and intriguing at the same time.”

  Sitting cross-legged at his hip, she looked past him to the window and froze. Her heart skipped as two big dark eyes stared back at her. A brown face with white circling the eyes and inside the ears identified the animal as a whitetail deer. No antlers, which meant it was a female. Her jet-black nose with two white bands behind it pressed against the glass as the doe watched them, unblinking.

  Gage turned his head, following Meredith’s gaze. He went still. “Wow.”

  “Yeah. Think she’ll do anything aggressive?”