by Linda Conrad
If he’d also been able to come up with boots from his attic’s trunks, she would’ve begged off coming to town today. But apparently boots were passed down and worn out.
She didn’t like the idea of appearing so out in the open. The town was small but public. And Jose was somewhere nearby. She could imagine him breathing down her neck.
As they rode in Sam’s pickup through the back streets of town, she felt sick from both the nauseating smell and from pure, dark fear. Clearing her throat, she swallowed hard—twice.
“You okay?” Sam took his foot off the gas and gazed over at her in the passenger seat. “You’re not worried about leaving Mikey with my aunt June, are you?”
“Not at all. Mikey seems to love being with June. Her home, on the outskirts of town, is such a wonderful little place. So snug and cozy. I’m sure the baby will have lots of fun playing with her in the backyard and helping her bake cookies in that warm kitchen.”
Sam scowled but then said gently, “Aunt June will protect him with her life. You know that, don’t you?”
Amazingly enough, Grace did know that. Not sure why these wonderful people were being so kind and taking risks for them, she nevertheless appreciated it on behalf of her son. But she certainly didn’t deserve their kindnesses.
“I know that. It’s not Mikey I’m worried about. I’m just a little shaky being out in public for the first time in days.”
“We won’t stay outside the fence for any longer than necessary. I want to speak to my brother and then head to the Feed and Seed Store up the highway.”
Nodding that she remembered why they’d come to town, Grace checked her surroundings, looking for any trouble. “I understand. It’s just that I feel…Jose. Close by.”
“You feel Serrano? Sounds a little like alternate reality to me. Do you think you two have some sort of psychic connection?”
She gritted her teeth at the remark and then proceeded to make a noise deep in her throat that sounded like a growl. Darned man.
Sam chuckled a little too loudly, but never stopped searching for a parking spot in back of an office building. “Just joking. Actually I was thinking the same thing. Serrano and his men must be close and giving off a huge amount of angry, negative energy.
“We won’t be long,” he promised.
They parked and went around to the building’s side door. While taking the stairs, he was extremely quiet.
From the few things he’d said about his brother Gage, she felt sure Sam was concerned how their reunion would go. But Travis and June had been so glad to see him after all these years. She couldn’t imagine that the rest of his family wouldn’t react the same way.
Sam was such a decent man. Everyone who ever knew him surely could see that.
Thinking about how much she valued Sam’s sterling character, Grace realized she had become a jumble of emotions. Still wound up due to last night’s interlude and her growing obsession with Sam, she felt dismayed to find out that Jose, however distantly, continued to lurk in the back of her mind like a bad dream.
When she thought of Jose, her first impulse was to run. Take Mikey and run as far and as fast as she could. But when she thought of Sam, which she did more and more often these days, she began to wonder what life would be like if she could stay in one place for a while. The place didn’t matter. Just anywhere she could be near Sam.
She searched his face in profile as they walked down a long hallway toward his brother’s office. His jaw was tight. His eyes narrowed. His broad shoulders were high and straight.
It made her wonder what his brother Gage would be like. Should she be afraid of this upcoming meeting on Sam’s account?
Sam’s current attitude also made her wonder about him. Was he keeping something from her? She’d witnessed him face bullets and deadly games of high-speed chicken. But never once in her memory had she seen him so uptight.
They came to the door with a sign that simply said: Gage Chance, Private Investigations. Sam hesitated at the threshold, shooting the cuffs of his jacket as if his nerves were rubbing him raw. Then, he breathed in one time and took her by the elbow, ushering her inside.
The walls of the first room they came to were lined with stacked cardboard boxes. Old electronic equipment sat in jumbles on every surface. The room didn’t seem to have a single chair or place to sit. Sam lightly tapped on an interior door and opened it without waiting to be invited to do so.
Inside this next room the walls were mostly lined with computers and peripheral equipment. A desk sat right in the middle of the disheveled wires and oddly blinking lights. A man who looked like a younger, darker version of Sam pushed back from the desk but stayed seated as they came through the door.
“Sam.” The other man shot a glance in her direction, but his face never betrayed what he was feeling.
“Hello, Gage. You were expecting us?”
“Yeah. Travis said you would be coming by.”
“I see. Well, this is Grace Baker.” Sam turned and actually gave her a reassuring half smile. “She and her son are under my protection.”
“Ma’am.” Gage nodded politely in her direction but he stayed in his seat. Seemed his mother had taught him manners, too, but he was showing no mercy to his brother by standing to shake his hand.
“If you’re fixing to take a poke at me,” Sam began. “I’ll ask her to step out until you’re done.”
That remark actually brought the edges of Gage’s lips up in his own shadow version of a wry smile. “Probably not necessary. I’m in no mood to smash in your face after all these years. But you still might want her outside, unless you don’t mind me being frank in front of your witness.”
“Say what you need to say.” Sam spread his feet and put his hands on his hips as if he was still expecting a punch in the mouth. “I didn’t come to start up an old argument, brother. I came to see for myself how you’re doing and to ask for a favor.”
Gage’s expression looked flustered for a second, then he turned to her. “Would you like to sit down? This may take a few moments.”
Blinking against the roomful of testosterone-filled tension, Grace located a single chair against the back wall and slid into it. She put her hands in her lap and held her breath.
But the next words out of Gage’s mouth surprised her.
Pushing to a standing position behind his desk, he held out his hand, palm up, toward his brother. “You never came back, Sam. Not once in all these years. And you promised.”
Sam’s shoulders twitched. “You’re a P.I. You could’ve found me—come to me if you needed help. Travis knew where I was. Besides, it doesn’t look like you’ve turned out so bad. I understand your business is booming.”
Gage lowered his chin as though he’d taken a blow. “There’s more to life than business. We haven’t been able to get a line on Cami. Not in all these years of trying. And now Colt.”
“What about Colt. Where is he?”
Gage shrugged a shoulder. “We’re not sure. He took off without a word just like you did.”
Sam shook his head for a moment, then seemed to shake past it as he continued, “I didn’t come to rehash old times, Gage. You know why I had to leave.”
“Damn it!” Gage slammed his fist down on the desk. “That’s bull and you know it. Nobody blamed you. Not one person. Least of all your family.”
Sam heaved a deep sigh. “We’ll do this another day. I’m still not ready to have it out with you. At least not right now.”
His brother slumped down into the desk chair. “All right. Fine. What do you need?”
“Grace and her baby are being stalked by a Mexican drug lord. A very powerful drug lord.”
Gage nodded. “Jose Serrano. I read the online newspaper accounts of his trial and escape when Travis told me you’d come to Chance to hide out on the old homestead.”
Sam began to pace in the small space before Gage’s desk. “There has to be a leak somewhere in law enforcement. His men have been showing up no matter w
hat precautions I take.”
“So you came to Chance for a showdown?”
“No!” Sam swung back and leaned on his brother’s desk. “I came home because I thought Grace and Mikey would be safest here. I…we can protect her best on the ranch.”
“You know everyone in town will help in any way they can.”
“I’m counting on that. But right now I’m hoping you have a small thirty-eight I can borrow. For Grace.”
On hearing her name, Grace sat straighter and looked up at the two men from under the brim of the stinky hat. Sam hadn’t told her they were coming to borrow a handgun.
Gage threw her a sideways glance. “You think that’s smart? A pistol shouldn’t be in the hands of anyone who doesn’t know how to use it. Especially not with kids in the house.”
She bristled and was ready to defend herself. But Sam got to it first.
“She’s learning. And she’s a danged good shot. I’ll take all the precautions necessary for Mikey.”
Gage tilted his head to study his brother. Sam stood ramrod straight under the scrutiny.
“Okay. If you say so.” Gage turned, went to a wall safe Grace hadn’t noticed before and removed a gun that fit in the palm of his hand. “How about this? Semiautomatic Glock seventeen. Fairly lightweight. But it still has enough firepower to stop a man before he gets too close. A female cop I know kept this one in her purse as a backup.”
Sam took the gun. “Ammo?”
Gage returned to his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a box. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Sam pocketed both the gun and the ammo. “One more favor?”
His brother raised an eyebrow but then nodded. “Sure. Whatever.”
“I saw a new pharmacy across the street on our way in. Need to run an errand over there, but I don’t want Grace out on the street. And I don’t want her to wait alone in the car. Okay if she waits here? I’ll only be ten minutes.”
“Well, I don’t know. She won’t be any trouble, will she?” Gage’s tone was obviously teasing or Grace might’ve started throwing her own punches. Then Gage sat back down in his chair and stared quietly up at his brother.
Sam never cracked a smile, ignoring the little joke as he turned to the door. “Thanks.”
The next thing she knew, Sam was gone and she was alone with a man she knew almost nothing about. A man who didn’t seem very happy to be a babysitter for a grown woman who stunk like a garbage dump and was being stalked by a drug lord.
* * *
“Can I get you something, Grace? Water? Coffee? Maybe a soda from the machine?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine.”
Gage leaned his elbows on the desk and studied her for a moment. “How about you take off my old work hat so we can talk? I can store that and the coat in the other room if you like.”
She stripped down to her own clothes, grinning sheepishly at the observant man as she went. Pulling open the door, she gratefully tossed the offensive hat and coat on a nearby stack of books.
“Thanks.” After closing the door, she sat back down in the chair, facing him. “So, do you have many clients that come to this office? That other room doesn’t exactly look…uh…welcoming.”
Gage actually smiled. The first real smile she’d seen on the man’s face. “If you didn’t notice on the way in, Chance is not the easiest place to reach. The Bar-C does have an airstrip, but there’s no commercial transportation for a hundred miles. The answer is no, no one comes here. I go to them if necessary. Besides, most of my business is done online.” He waved an arm around at all the electronics.
“You must have a hard time keeping up with everything.”
Gage blinked at her then frowned as he looked around the room. “I’m thinking of hiring someone to help out with the…organization. But it’s not easy to find anyone with the right qualifications who wants to live in a place so remote.”
“I can understand that.” But she was beginning to find the isolation and the small-town feel of the place very comforting.
Silence fell between them. She was tempted to ask about Sam, but decided she had better stay neutral. Asking just seemed too nosy.
“Do you live on the ranch?” It was the best small talk she could come up with on short notice.
“No. I live in a boarding house. Right up the street. It’s fine for right now.”
Grace had an inkling of something he’d left unsaid. So she tried to ease a little more information from the man. But she was beginning to feel like a reporter hot on a story.
“Don’t you care for the ranch?”
Gage chuckled under his breath. “I like the ranch and the stock just fine. Every spring I help out with the cutting and spring ranching chores. In fact, it’s that time of year again and I’ll be staying on the ranch for the next few weeks.”
“Oh.” Suddenly it occurred to her that he might’ve been planning to stay at his old home. “Do you want to stay with us while you’re working? I guess you know there’s plenty of room.”
A sudden sadness came into Gage’s eyes. “That old house holds too many unhappy memories. For all of us. No thanks. Besides, I already have a house on the ranch where I stay while I’m working there. Built it myself for my new bride. About six years ago.”
“I didn’t know you were married.”
“My wife…passed away. About six months after we were married. Right before the house was finished.” Gage stood and faced the lone window to the street.
“I’m so sorry. Does Sam know?”
Without turning, Gage said, “I doubt it. But then it’s hard to tell with Sam. He didn’t show up for either Travis’s or my wedding. In fact, he didn’t even bother to show up at his own father’s funeral.”
Intrigued, Grace tried probing a little bit further. “Do you think that’s because Sam was still angry with his father? He told me his old man was hard on him while he was growing up.”
“Maybe.” Gage returned to his desk. “But I think the more likely reason was because Dad died in prison.”
“What?” Grace was shocked by the idea.
“You didn’t know?”
“No—Sam…Sam never said anything.”
Gage sat heavily into his desk chair. “I guess I shouldn’t have said anything, either, then. It’s hard explaining to people how your father died while serving time for murdering your mother.”
“Really?” She hadn’t had an opportunity to fully process the first shock before he’d issued the next one, so she couldn’t help the comments. “How do you cope with it?”
“Not well. But then I never believed my father killed my mother. He wasn’t an easy man. But he was no killer.”
At a loss for words, Grace leaned back in her chair and tried to breathe evenly. In her head she worked to put Sam’s steady personality and basic goodness together with his background. But she was having trouble with the two divergent components to one man.
Had Sam left because of the murder of his mother? Or because of his father? Thinking back to the two brothers’ earlier conversation about something not being Sam’s fault, Grace felt she was still missing a piece of vital information.
None of this was any of her business. Despite her wild fantasies of starting a new life, she and Sam were going to become temporary lovers. And as soon as she had all the knowledge she needed, plus a little money set aside, she and Mikey would be running again. Leaving all the people who were coming to mean something to her, especially Sam, safely behind.
Yet she was growing more and more curious about the first man to almost make her forget her own past. And she intended to help him by finding a way inside his defenses. One way or the other.
Chapter 15
Driving to the Feed and Seed Store, Sam’s skin began to crawl. Something was not right.
Grace had been too quiet since they’d left Gage’s office. Maybe she felt the same strange sensation as he did. It was as if Jose Serrano followed right behind them. Sam checked the rearview mirror on
ce more. Nothing. In fact, except for whatever was going on at the diner today, the whole town seemed deserted.
After parking in back of the store, he went around to open the door for her. “Let’s go. I’d like to get this done as quickly as possible.”
She swiveled and slid to the ground, grimacing. “We could skip it.”
“We’re here. Come on.”
He reached over, taking the brim of her hat and jerking it down to cover her eyes. Then he pulled the collar of the oversize coat up to almost meet the hat. Very little of Grace’s face or neck showed. But when he surveyed the disguise a little closer, he discovered nothing could cover the feminine form below the coat. The rounded hips. The long slender legs. It was all he could do to turn away and lead her into the store.
“I can’t see.”
“I’ll help you walk until I can check things out.” He slid his arm around her waist and cautioned her when they reached the back stairway.
Sneaking onto the empty loading dock, Sam gave the place a once-over for customers before going inside the store’s interior. He spotted one other man besides the two guys who were obviously feed store employees. But that one customer was someone he knew from his distant past. Someone he could trust with their lives.
He walked right up the aisle toward him while Grace trailed behind, hanging on to the hem of his coat. “Sheriff McCord, do you remember me?”
McCord, who must have been sixty by now, turned from reading a label and studied him over the rim of his glasses. “Yep. I suppose I do, Chance. Hard to forget the oldest son of the most powerful family in the county. Your father hired me, remember? Nearly thirty years ago now.”
“I remember.” He also remembered that it was McCord who had arrested his father for the murder of his mother. “You still the sheriff?”
Sam felt no animosity toward the sheriff. It had looked to the whole world like his father had committed the crime. After all these years, Sam wasn’t so sure.
“That would be right.” The sheriff tilted his head to study Grace, who was covered head to toe, but he kept on talking to Sam. “I heard you were a Marshal—working for the United States government.”
