WILDER DAYS

by Linda Winstead Jones

  He turned on her, furious and determined. “You are not.”

  “Well, I’m not going to let you go alone,” she said sternly. “You’re not going without me.”

  He turned away and headed for the stairs, took them two at a time and threw open the door to Noelle’s room, where Shock slept.

  “Holly has Noelle and my mother.”

  It was all the explanation he needed. Shock was up and dressed and out of the room in a matter of minutes.

  Del checked the clip in his pistol, stuffed an extra clip in his pocket, and turned to his partner, who was doing the same.

  “I want you here,” Del said.

  “What?”

  “Vic’s going to try to follow me. I don’t care if you have to duct-tape her to a kitchen chair, she doesn’t leave this house. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Shock said.

  “No,” she argued, brushing past Shock to get to Del. Dammit, she couldn’t fight them both! Physically, she didn’t have a chance. “You need me, and I can’t… I won’t just sit here and wait.”

  Del took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You asked me once to make a promise. You said if I had to choose between protecting Noelle and protecting you, that I’d protect her.”

  “I remember.”

  “Don’t make me choose,” he whispered. “It would be an absolute nightmare to find myself in a position where I had to make that kind of decision. In order to do what needs to be done, I have to know that you’re here and safe. Please, Vic. Do this for me.”

  As much as she wanted to be with him, as much as she needed to go to Noelle, she couldn’t argue with his reasoning. If he had to know she was out of harm’s way in order to do his job, she’d cooperate.

  “All right.”

  He sighed, long and low. She saw the hint of relief on his tense face, and in that moment she knew she’d made the right decision. It would be hell on earth, but she’d stay here and wait.

  “I want a gun,” she added.

  “No,” Del said.

  “You have more than one,” she argued.

  “You don’t need a gun!”

  “But...”

  “Until I can be absolutely sure you won’t shoot yourself in the foot, I’m not giving you a weapon.”

  “No one really shoots themselves in the foot!”

  Shock cleared his throat and looked really embarrassed, as he casually glanced down at his own right foot.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Del said.

  “I know. Forget it. I’ll be fine here.” She wondered if she should answer his earlier question now. Yes, I love you. I never stopped. I love you more today than I did sixteen years ago, and that’s saying a lot.

  She said nothing. Del didn’t need anything else on his mind, and she didn’t want to send him off like that, with a desperate I love you that might sound like she was confessing her love because she thought he was never coming back. “Take Shock with you,” she said softly. “You’re going to need him more than I will.”

  He shook his head. “No. I have to go alone. Those were the instructions and—” she saw the fear in his eyes, a fear he would never admit to “—I’m following the instructions this time. If I don’t...” He couldn’t finish that thought. “It’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”

  She nodded silently, her heart in her throat.

  Del was riding off to war again, and this time he was going without the cavalry.

  Chapter 12

  Tense behind the steering wheel of his Jag, Del sped down the interstate. He’d been wrong, horribly wrong, when he’d said Holly would come after him and Vic, not Noelle. He didn’t want to think about the possible consequences of that mistake. How had Holly found the Mississippi farm? He’d been so goddamn careful! Very few people knew where the place was, the security system was first-rate and his mother knew better than to open the door to criminals masquerading as delivery men.

  But did Noelle?

  Noelle. His daughter. His and Vic’s child. He hardly knew her, and still, he’d protect her with his life if need be. He’d do anything to keep her safe. Just as Vic had, all these years.

  Vic was right, she’d been right all along. He couldn’t guarantee that no one would ever again go after his family to get to him, and that’s what Noelle and Vic were. His family. His woman and his child. Was it fair to ask them to put their lives on the line just because they were his? No, it wasn’t. They deserved better; they deserved to be safe, always. Yeah, Vic had been right all along.

  He couldn’t tell Noelle that he was her father. He couldn’t tell anyone. The truth of Noelle’s parentage would have to remain a dark family secret, a reason for Archard and Preston to look down their pointy, aristocratic noses and sneer. No one else could know. No one.

  Del repeated that to himself as he sped down the interstate.

  Vic waited fifteen minutes. “You’re not actually going to let him go there alone,” she said, hands on hips as she faced an antsy Shock.

  “He didn’t give me any choice.”

  “Do you always do as you’re told?” she snapped. “Funny, you never struck me as the obedient sort.”

  “He wants me here, watching you,” Shock argued. “Do I like this? Hell, no. Can I disregard the wishes of my partner because I have an uneasy feeling in my gut? No.”

  She was experiencing that same uneasy feeling, and had been since she’d watched Del walk out the front door. Knowing Shock had it, too, didn’t make her feel any better.

  “Noelle is his daughter,” she said, trying to make Shock understand the importance of this moment.

  “I kinda figured as much,” he said, his voice low. “They’re similar in too many ways. I mean, there’s the eyes and the earring thing and kind of a nose thing going on, but it’s more than that. Noelle’s got cojones. She didn’t get that from you, and from what little I’ve seen of your ex she didn’t get balls from his gene pool. Makes sense.” He shrugged. “And besides, I knew about you. A little.”

  She swallowed hard. “Del told you about me?”

  “No.” He tapped his fingers over his heart. Of course. The tattoo.

  Vic shook her head. “Del won’t be thinking clearly when he goes in there to trade himself for Noelle and Louise. He’s not thinking straight, and he’s going to rush in there and get himself killed.” Tears sprung to her eyes. “And he’s going to do it alone.”

  “He doesn’t want you there.”

  “I know.” And he was right. She wouldn’t put Del in a position where he might be forced to choose. She wouldn’t rush in blindly and get in the way. She had to trust Del enough to handle this on his own. For once in her life... “But what about you? You should be with him.”

  Shock shook his head. “Del wants you safe, and that’s my job this time. He wants me to watch over you until this is done.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather be there, with him?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what if we find another place for me to wait this out?” To hide and wait and worry, and wish she’d told Del that she loved him before he’d left this house.

  “Where? I can’t leave you alone, and I don’t know any of the other agents on this detail well enough to be sure that they’re, you know, any good.”

  There was only one place she could go. No one would expect her to go there, no one would think to look for her there. “Take me to my father’s house.”

  Del didn’t bother to park down the driveway and walk to the cottage. There would be no sneaking up on Holly. She was waiting for him, waiting and watching. For all he knew the dark driveway was lined with men just waiting for him to pull something.

  He was taking no chances.

  He left the Glock at his spine, not attempting to hide the weapon. Holly wouldn’t expect him to arrive unarmed. Once she had the Glock, maybe she wouldn’t think to check his boots. He’d hidden a small revolver in the left boot, his knife was sheathed in the right.

  Lights we
re shining in the house, bright and welcoming. From the outside, everything looked normal. Perfectly, sanely normal. It wasn’t. Del hadn’t prayed for years, but as he stepped onto the porch, he prayed hard and fast. His daughter and his mother were in there. He wanted them safe from harm, now and forever.

  A sheriff’s deputy should be driving by soon. How soon? They were on a regular drive-by, but since everything looked fine there was no reason for them to stop. Just as well. If a deputy did stop, he wouldn’t get far.

  How had Holly gotten past the alarm system? Louise obviously hadn’t had time to hit the panic button before Holly took her hostage. If she had, he would have heard from the sheriff’s department by now. So much for his security system. He’d put so much faith in that system! In bells and whistles and hardware. He should’ve been here himself. He should’e killed Holly when he’d had the chance. There were too many should-haves.

  All that mattered was getting Noelle and Louise out. Nothing else. When he’d tried to trade himself for Vic, Holly had not lived up to her part of the bargain and let her hostage go. What made him think she would this time?

  What choice did he have?

  The door swung open before Del reached it. Holly stood there, pale, thinner than she’d been just a few days ago. And smiling.

  Del instinctively reached behind him and drew his Glock. It popped up, the sight trained on Holly’s forehead. “If either one of them is hurt, you’re dead.”

  Her smile faded, but not completely. “Come on, Wilder. Put the gun down. You know I’m not here alone.”

  Del stepped forward and Holly moved back. His weapon didn’t drop, not even a fraction of an inch. “The man who shot Tripp in the back of the head?” he snapped. “That’s your partner?”

  Holly’s lower lip trembled, her eyes filled with tears. “When I get my hands on that son of a bitch, he’s dead. Tripp made it all the way out to the car on his own, he could have been fixed up. But no, that bastard said we didn’t have time to worry with screwups who got themselves shot.”

  “Who?” Holly had been wounded, too. How had she gotten away? “Who put you up to this?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” Holly ignored the gun and led the way to the parlor, where Louise and Noelle were strapped to chairs on opposite sides of the room. They were both bound tightly, but only Noelle had a piece of duct tape over her mouth. Dammit, didn’t she know that smart mouth of hers could get her killed?

  They’d both been crying, but neither one appeared to be hurt.

  A young man Del had never seen before entered from the back of the house, a pistol hanging familiarly in his hand, his eyes flitting from one captive to the other and then to Del. “I didn’t see anyone else out there,” he said.

  “I came alone,” Del said, “just as you said. Let them go. Now.”

  “But this is so nice,” Holly said, her smile flitting back. “One big happy family. Grandma, Daddy, fresh-mouthed little girl.”

  Del remained calm. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Holly tsked. “Of course you do. Apparently, she didn’t know but, hey, life is full of surprises.”

  Del looked at Noelle. Her eyes had gone wide, her face paled and huge tears sprang up fast.

  “Where’s Mama?” Holly asked. “I thought you might bring her with you. I kinda thought she might insist, since we have the little Wilder here. What did you do, tie her up to keep her away?”

  “Something like that,” Del muttered.

  Holly favored her right side, and occasionally pressed a tender hand there. Was that where she’d been wounded?

  “Why are you doing this?”

  Holly shook her head. “At first, we were just hired help. This man went to Tripp and told him you were an undercover agent. Damn,” she mumbled. “I never saw it. Neither did Tripp. We were paid good money to get rid of you and the woman, and it seemed fitting, since you were setting us up. Hell, I would have done it for free.”

  Not just him, according to Holly, but Vic, too. Was she a bigger part of this than simple bait? “Who?” Del asked again.

  “Do you think he gave us his name, moron? Not likely. He said we could call him Bob. That isn’t his real name, I’m pretty sure.”

  “This Bob killed Tripp?”

  Holly nodded, once.

  “Then why are you still doing his dirty work?” Del shouted. “Let these two go, and...”

  “No,” Holly interrupted. “Bob sent us here, since you and Mama are surrounded by cops, and we’re supposed to get rid of you ASAP. Once you’re gone, Mama will be easy. But things are not going to go as Bob has planned, Wilder. We’re going to reel him in, nice and easy like.”

  Del’s Glock snapped up and he aimed at her forehead again. “This is between us. I want them out of here, now.”

  Holly didn’t move, but her new pal did. He lifted his weapon and aimed it at Noelle. Del’s heart almost stopped, but he didn’t lower his weapon.

  “Not her,” Holly reprimanded. “We need the kid. Aim that gun at Grandma. We can shoot her if we have to.”

  The guy did as he was told and pointed his weapon at Louise’s temple.

  “Why do you need the kid?” Del asked, not dropping his weapon but swinging it to the side so it wasn’t aimed at anyone. The man who threatened his mother did the same, easing his own weapon aside in an unspoken truce. “She’s not a part of this.”

  “Oh, but she is,” Holly said. “When Bob came with us to the cabin that night, he gave us very specific instructions not to hurt the girl. He wants Mama and Daddy dead, but we weren’t to touch the kid. I’m not sure why or how, but your daughter is going to bring Bob to me, and when he comes here I’m going to blow his brains out, just like he did to Tripp.”

  She turned her back on Del. “And when that’s done, I don’t care what happens to the rest of you.”

  Vic hadn’t asked her father for a favor of any kind in years. She didn’t want to owe him, not even in the smallest way. He had a way of totaling up and calling in debts owed him.

  But tonight she had no choice. She’d asked for his help for Del and Noelle, not for herself.

  He’d been perfectly obliging in allowing her to stay here. She had explained a small portion of the story to this point, and he’d even allowed the agents Del had guarding her to sit on the street outside his house.

  She suspected he would not be offering them coffee.

  Of course, with her father, nothing was free. He’d had his cook prepare an elaborate dinner she would not be able to choke down, and he’d invited Ryan Parrish to join them.

  Ryan was a nice-enough guy, and he was good-looking, in a blond kind of way. Golden hair, blue-green eyes, quick smile. She’d dated him twice a few months ago. Dinner. A movie. Nothing special. Even if she hadn’t known her father liked Ryan and hoped for more, she wouldn’t have gone out with him again.

  He hadn’t given up easily, like the others usually did. He called when he was in town, and on occasion he still asked her out, even though she always refused.

  Apparently Daddy thought Ryan would made a great second husband. He was in and out of Huntsville, working for Archard Enterprises as a consultant. As far as Vic could tell that meant he played a lot of golf, traveled frequently and worked only when the spirit moved him.

  “This is nice,” Ryan said, shooting a grin Vic’s way.

  “We’re so glad you could join us,” Will Archard said, as if this was their home and they had invited him. Her stomach was in knots. What was happening right now? Shock had promised to call when there was news, but there was no telling how long that would be.

  What would she do if they were hurt? Or killed? Not just Del, not just Noelle, but both of them. She understood why Del didn’t want her there, but dammit, that was where she belonged. With her daughter and the man she loved. Fighting, if necessary.

  She became vaguely aware that her father was calling her name. Not Vic, like her friends and acquaintances, but Victoria. Only he a
nd Preston called her Victoria. Vic was much too undignified for them. She lifted her head and found her father and Ryan staring at her. “Yes?”

  “Is there something wrong with your shrimp?”

  She looked at the untouched food on her plate. “No. I’m just not hungry.” He didn’t realize that Noelle had been taken hostage. He hadn’t even bothered to ask where his granddaughter was, even though he knew there was trouble. It was unnatural. Cold and unfeeling, inhuman. Her father was a monster. Her worst fear was that deep inside she was like him.

  “Excuse me,” the monster said. “I just remembered, I have an important phone call to make. Ryan, keep an eye on Victoria for me. She doesn’t seem to be feeling well.”

  He was so transparent. Her father liked Ryan, he approved of the man as a suitor for his only child. And why not? Ryan was a great golfer and as big a snob as Will Archard himself.

  “You don’t have to entertain me,” she said, her voice low and shaky. She didn’t want to be here. If she couldn’t be with Del, she wanted to be alone. Preferably with her head beneath the covers. She needed to hide, to cocoon herself against the world.

  Ryan’s smile softened. “You don’t look well. Is there anything I can do?”

  She shook her head.

  “I wish you would let me help you.”

  Again, Vic shook her head.

  “How’s Noelle?” he asked, his voice bright as he tried to strike up a conversation.

  Anything else. She might be able to choke out a polite conversation about anything else. Not Noelle. Not when she didn’t know what was happening.

  Vic pushed her chair back and left the dining room with a muttered apology. She couldn’t stand this. She would not sit there and make small talk while the man she loved and their daughter were in danger.

  She didn’t expect Ryan to follow her, but he did. He caught her as she began to climb the stairs. His hand fell heavily on her shoulder.