Bound by Honor: Mercenary's WomanThe Winter Soldier

by Diana Palmer

  Jessica wiped her forehead with a shaking hand. “I lost touch with her just before the trial. I assumed that she’d gone undercover to escape vengeance from Lopez. She wasn’t going to testify, after all. She only gave me sources of hard information that I could use to prosecute him. Afterward, there were only three people who knew about her involvement, and they died under rather…mysterious circumstances.”

  “This is the name Lopez wants?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said miserably. “He’s got my son!”

  “Then you lose nothing by giving him the name,” he said quietly. “Do you?”

  “No. But he may not even remember her…”

  “He was in love with her,” Rodrigo said coldly. “His women have a habit of washing up on beaches. The last, a young singer in a Cancún nightclub, died only weeks ago at his hands. There is no proof, of course,” he added coldly. “The official cause of death was suicide.”

  He sounded as though the matter was personal. She hesitated to ask. “You knew the singer?” she ventured.

  There was a pause. “Yes. She was…my sister.”

  “I’m very sorry.”

  “So am I. Give Lopez the name. It will pacify him and spare your son any more adventures. He will not harm the boy,” he added at once. “I think you must know this already.”

  “I do. At least he has one virtue among so many vices. But it doesn’t ease the fear.”

  “Of course not. Tell Scott I’ll be in touch, and not to contact me again. When I have something concrete, I’ll call him.”

  “I’ll tell him. Thank you.”

  “De nada.” He hung up.

  She went into the other room, feeling her way along the wall.

  “Well?” Sally asked.

  “My informant is dead,” Jessica said sadly. “Lopez killed her, and I never knew. I thought she’d escaped and maybe changed her name.”

  “What now?” Sally asked miserably.

  “I give Lopez the name,” Jessica replied. “It will harm no one now. She was so brave. She actually worked in his house and pretended to care about him, just so that she could find enough evidence to convict him. Her father and mother, and her sister, had been gunned down in their village by his men, because they spoke to a government unit about the drug smuggling. She was sick with fear and grief, but she was willing to do anything to stop him.” She shook her head. “Poor woman.”

  “A brave soul,” Eb said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me, too,” Jessica said. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling chilled. “What if Lopez won’t believe me?”

  “You know,” Eb said quietly, “I think he will.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Dallas agreed, his eyes narrow and dark with worry.

  Sally put a loving arm around her aunt. “We’ll get Stevie back,” she said gently. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  Jessica hugged her back tearfully. “What would I do without you?” she whispered huskily.

  Sally exchanged a long look with Dallas. She smiled. “I think you’re going to find out very soon,” she teased. “And I’ll be your bridesmaid.”

  “Matron of honor,” Eb corrected with soft, tender eyes.

  “What?” Jessica exclaimed.

  “I’m going to marry your niece, Jess,” Eb said gently. “I always meant to, you know. And,” he added with mock solemnity, “it does seem the least I can do, considering that she’s saved herself for me all these years, despite the blatant temptations of college life…”

  “Temptations,” Sally chuckled. “If you only knew!”

  “Explain that,” Eb challenged.

  She let go of Jessica and went close to him, sliding her arms naturally around his hard waist. “As if there’s a man on the planet who could compare with you,” she murmured, and reached up to kiss his chin. Her eyes literally glowed with love. “There never was any competition. There never could be.”

  Eb lifted an eyebrow. “I could return the compliment,” he said in a deep, quiet tone. “You’re in a class all your own, Sally mine.”

  She laid her cheek against his hard chest. “They’ll give Stevie back, won’t they?” she asked after a minute.

  “Yes,” he said, utterly certain.

  Sally glanced at Jessica, who was close beside Dallas now, leaning against him. They looked as if they’d always belonged together. Things had to turn out all right for them. They just had to. Lopez might have one virtue, but Sally wasn’t at all sure that Eb was right. She only prayed that Stevie would be returned when Jess gave up the informant’s name. If Lopez did keep his word, and that seemed certain, there was a chance. She had to hope it was a good one.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  IN EXACTLY AN HOUR FROM THE time Lopez hung up, the phone rang again. Eb let Jessica answer it.

  “Hello,” she said quietly.

  “The name,” Lopez replied tersely.

  She took a slow breath. “I want you to understand that I would never have given up my informant under ordinary circumstances. But nothing I say can harm her now. I only found out today that she’s beyond your vengeance. So it doesn’t matter anymore if you know who she was.”

  “Who…she was?” Lopez asked, his voice hesitant.

  “Yes. Was. Her name was Isabella…”

  His indrawn breath was so harsh that Jessica almost felt it. “Isabella,” he bit off. There was a tense pause. “Isabella.”

  “I lost touch with her before your trial,” Jessica said curtly. “I assumed that she’d gone away and taken on another identity to escape being found out. I didn’t know that she was dead already.”

  Still, Lopez said nothing. The silence went on for so long that Jessica thought the connection was cut.

  “Hello?” she asked.

  There was another intake of breath. “I loved her,” he spat. “In my life, there was no other woman I trusted so much. But she wanted nothing to do with me. I should have known. I should have realized!”

  “You killed her, didn’t you?” Jessica said coldly.

  “Yes,” he said, and he didn’t sound violent. He sounded oddly subdued. “I never meant to. But I lashed out in a moment’s rage, and then it was too late, and all my regrets would not bring her back to life.” He drew another breath. “She was close enough to me that she knew things no one else was permitted to know. It occurred to me that she was asking far too many questions, but I was conceited enough to believe she cared for me.” There was another brief pause. “The boy will be returned at once. You will find him at the strip mall in the toy store in five minutes. He will not be harmed. You have my word. Nor will you ever be threatened by me again. I…regret…many things,” he added in an odd tone, and the line went dead abruptly.

  Jessica caught her breath, still holding the receiver in her hand, as if it had life.

  “Well?” Dallas asked impatiently.

  She felt for the instrument and replaced the receiver with slow deliberation. “He said that Stevie would be in the toy store in the strip mall, in five minutes, unharmed.” Her eyes closed. “Unharmed.”

  Eb motioned Dallas toward Jessica.

  “Let’s go,” he said tersely.

  “What if he lied?” Jessica asked as Dallas escorted her out to the big sports utility vehicle Eb drove.

  “We both know that Lopez is a man of his word, regardless of his bloody reputation,” Dallas said tersely. “We have to hope that he told the truth.”

  Jessica nibbled on her fingernails all the way to the mall, which was only about six minutes away from Eb’s ranch. She sat close beside Dallas in the back seat, holding his hand tightly. Sally glanced back at them, silently praying all the way, worried for all of them, but especially for little Stevie. Her hand felt for Eb’s and he grasped it tightly, sparing her a reassuring smile.

  The minutes seemed like hours as they sped into town. Eb had no sooner parked the vehicle in the parking lot than Jessica was out the door, hurrying with Dallas right beside her to guide her step
s.

  Eb and Sally followed the couple into the small toy store, and there was Stevie, sitting on the floor, playing with a mechanical elephant that walked and lifted its trunk and trumpeted.

  “It’s Stevie,” Dallas said huskily. “He’s…fine!”

  “Where? Stevie!” Jessica called brokenly, holding out her arms.

  “Hi, Mom!” Stevie exclaimed, leaving the toy to run into her arms. “Gosh, I was scared, but the man taught me how to play poker and gave me a soda! He said I was brave and he admired my courage! Were you scared, Mom?”

  Jessica was crying so hard that she could barely speak at all. She hugged her child close and couldn’t seem to let him go, even when he wiggled.

  “Let his dad have a little of this joyful reunion,” Dallas murmured dryly, holding out his arms.

  Stevie went right into them and hugged him hard. “I don’t have a real dad now,” he said, “but you’re going to be a great dad, Dallas! You and me will go to all the wrestling matches and take Mom and describe everything to her, won’t we?”

  “Yes,” Dallas said, his voice husky, his eyes bright as he rocked his child in his arms with mingled relief and affection. “We’ll do that.”

  Jessica felt her way into Dallas’s arms with Stevie and pressed there for a long moment. Beside them, Sally held tight to Eb’s hand and smiled with pure relief.

  “I had an adventure,” Stevie said when his parents let go of him. “But it’s nice to be home again. Can I have that elephant? He sure is neat!”

  “You can have a whole circus if I can find one for sale,” Dallas laughed huskily. “But for now, I think we’ll go back to the ranch.”

  They paid for the elephant and got into the truck with Eb and Sally.

  “Can you drop us off at our house?” Jessica asked Eb.

  There was a hesitation. She heard it and smiled.

  “Lopez said that he had no more business with me,” Jessica told him. “He didn’t even question what I told him,” she added. “He said that Isabella was always asking him questions and pretending to care about him. He knew she didn’t. He did sound very sorry that he killed her. Perhaps the small part of him that’s still human can feel remorse. Who knows?”

  “One day,” Dallas said curtly, “we’ll catch up with him. This isn’t over, you know, even if he is through making threats toward you and Stevie. He’s going to pay for this. And, somehow, we’re going to stop him from setting up business in Jacobsville.”

  “We have Rodrigo in place,” Eb agreed, “and Cy watching the progress of the warehouse. It won’t be easy, but if we’re careful, we may cut his source of supply and his distribution network right in half. Cut off the head and the snake dies.”

  “Amen,” Dallas replied.

  DALLAS GOT OUT OF THE sports utility vehicle with Jessica and Stevie, waving the other couple off with a big smile.

  “You really believe Lopez meant it when he said he was quits with Jessica?” Sally asked, still not quite convinced of the outlaw’s sincerity.

  “Yes, I do,” Eb replied, glancing at her with a smile. “He’s a snake, but his word is worth something.”

  Sally turned her head toward Eb and studied his profile warmly, with soft, covetous eyes.

  He glanced over and met that look. His own eyes narrowed. “A lot has happened since last night,” he said quietly. “Do you still mean what you told me at dawn?”

  “That I’d marry you?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Oh, yes,” she said, “I meant every word. I want to live with you all my life.”

  “It won’t bother you to have professional mercenaries running around the place at all hours for a while?” he teased.

  She grinned. “Why should it? I am, after all, a mercenary’s woman.”

  “Not quite yet,” he murmured with a wry glance. “And very soon, a mercenary’s wife.”

  “That sounds very respectable,” she commented.

  “I’m glad you waited for me, Sally,” he said seriously.

  “So am I.” She slid her hand into his big one and held on tight. It tingled all the way up her arm.

  “We’ve had enough excitement for today,” he said. “But tomorrow we’ll see about getting the license. Do you want a justice of the peace or a minister to marry us?”

  “A minister,” she said at once. “I want a permanent marriage.”

  He nodded. “So do I. And you have to have a white gown with a veil.”

  Her eyebrows arched.

  “You’re not just a mercenary’s woman, you’re a virtuous mercenary’s woman. I want to watch you float down the aisle to me covered in silk and satin and lace, and with a veil for me to lift after we’ve said our vows.”

  She smiled with her whole heart. “That would be nice. There’s a little boutique…”

  “We’ll fly up to Dallas and get one at Neiman-Marcus.”

  She gasped.

  “You’re marrying a rich man,” he pointed out. “Humor me. It’s going to be a social event. Let me deck you out like a comet.”

  She laughed. “All right. I’d really love a white wedding, if you don’t mind.”

  “And we’ll both wear rings,” he added. “We’ll get those in Dallas, too.”

  Her eyes were full of dreams as she looked at her future husband hungrily. There was only one small worry. “Eb, about Maggie…”

  “Maggie is a closed chapter,” he told her. “I adored her, in my way, but she was never in love with me. I stood in Cord’s shadow even then, and she never realized it. She still hasn’t.” He glanced at her and smiled. “I love you, you know,” he murmured, watching her eyes light up. “I’d never have proposed if I hadn’t.”

  “I love you, too, Eb,” she said solemnly. “I always will.”

  His fingers curled tighter into hers. “Dreams really do come true.”

  She wouldn’t have argued with that statement to save her life, and she said so.

  IT WAS THE SOCIETY EVENT of the year in Jacobsville, eclipsed only by Simon Hart’s wedding with the governor giving Tira away. There were no major celebrities at Eb and Sally’s wedding, but Eb did have a conglomeration of mercenaries and government agents the like of which Jacobsville had never seen. Cord Romero was sitting with Maggie on the groom’s side of the church, along with a tall, striking dark-haired man with a small mustache and neat brief beard. Beside him was a big blond man who made even Dallas look shorter. On the pew across from him, on Sally’s side of the church, was a blue-eyed brunette who avoided looking at the big blond man. Sally recognized her as Callie, the stepsister of the big blond man, who was Eb’s friend Micah Steele.

  A number of men in suits filled the rest of the groom’s pews. Some were wearing sunglasses inside. Others were watching the people on the bride’s side of the church, which wasn’t packed, since Sally hadn’t been back in Jacobsville long enough to make close friends in the community. Jessica was there with Stevie and Dallas, of course.

  Sally walked down the aisle all by herself, since she hadn’t contacted either of her parents about her wedding. They had their own lives now, and neither of them had written to Sally since the breakup of their family when she moved in with Jessica. She didn’t really mind going it alone. Somehow, under the circumstances, it even seemed appropriate. She wore a dream of a wedding gown, with yards and yards of delicate lace and a train, and a veil that accentuated her blond beauty.

  Eb stood at the altar waiting for her, in a gray vested suit with a white rose in his lapel. He turned as she joined him, and looked down at her with eyes that made her knees weak.

  The ceremony was brief, but poignant, and when Eb lifted the veil to kiss her for the first time as her husband, tears welled up in her eyes as his mouth tenderly claimed hers. They held hands going back down the aisle, wearing matching simple gold bands. Outside the church, they were pelted with rice and good wishes. Laughing, Sally tossed her bouquet and Dallas intercepted it to make sure it landed in Jessica’s hands.

>   They climbed into the rented limousine and minutes later, they were at Eb’s ranch, pausing just long enough to change into traveling clothes and rush to the private airstrip to board a loaned Learjet for the trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for their brief honeymoon.

  The trip was tiring, and so was the aftermath of the day’s excitement. Sally climbed into the huge whirlpool bath while Eb made dinner reservations for that evening.

  She didn’t realize that she wasn’t alone until Eb climbed down into the water with her. He chuckled at her expression and then he kissed her. Very soon, she forgot all about her shock at the first sight of her unclothed bridegroom in the joy of an embrace that knew no obstacles.

  He kissed her until she was clinging, gasping for breath and shivering with pleasure.

  “Where?” he whispered, stroking her tenderly, enjoying her reactions to her first real intimacy. “Here, or in the bed?”

  She could barely speak. “In bed,” she said huskily.

  “That suits me.”

  He got out and turned off the jets, lifting her clear of the water to towel them both dry. He picked her up and carried her quickly into the bedroom, barely taking time to strip down the covers before he fell with her onto crisp, clean sheets.

  She knew that first times were notoriously painful, embarrassing, and uncomfortable, but hers was a notable exception. Eb was skillful and slow, arousing her to a hot frenzy of response before he even began to touch her intimately. By the time his body slid down against hers in stark possession, she was lifting toward him and pleading for an end to the violent tension of pleasure he’d aroused in her.

  Her breath jerked out at his ear at the slow, steady invasion of her most private place in a silence that magnified the least little sound. She heard his heartbeat, and her own, increase with every careful thrust of his hips. She heard his breathing, erratic, rough, mingling with her own excited little moans.

  She felt one lean hand sliding up her bare leg as he turned and shifted his weight against her, and when he touched her high on her inner thigh in a rhythm like the descent of his body, she arched up toward him and groaned in anguish.