Perfect Wyoming Complete Collection: Special Agent's Perfect Cover ; Rancher's Perfect Baby Rescue ; A Daughter's Perfect Secret ; Lawman's Perfect Surrender ; The Perfect Outsider ; Mercenary's Perfect Mission

by Marie Ferrarella

  As he ran, his mind tumbled with a million thoughts. Samuel had stolen the very soul of a town. He’d taken children from their parents, destroyed families and killed innocent people. If he wasn’t caught he’d do it all again, in another state, in another small town and that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

  Personally, he’d stolen Micah’s ability to love, his ability to feel love. When he’d taken Johanna away, he’d broken something vital in Micah.

  Olivia. Her name sang through his soul even as he tripped over a hidden vine and nearly fell to the ground. Maybe in a different time, in a different place, he would have accepted what he felt in his heart for her—love.

  But as he raced through the bramble bushes, tore through the brush and around trees, he carried with him the knowledge that he might not survive the night, that he had nothing to offer Olivia and her children. He knew that he loved her enough to let her go to find her future somewhere else, with somebody else.

  The fact that he’d already let go of Olivia only shot his rage toward his brother even higher. Gasping and out of breath, he finally reached the rock structure behind which hid the tunnel egress from the Community Center.

  His heart crashed to a halt as he saw the FBI agent dead on the ground near the exit. A knife protruded from his chest. Samuel had already come up. Micah knelt down beside the dead agent and felt his wrist. Still warm, and with the cold night air, that meant Samuel was surely only minutes ahead of Micah.

  There was no way Samuel knew the forest like Micah did. Samuel was probably dressed in his fancy business suit and slick Italian loafers. Not exactly survivalist clothing.

  Micah stopped and held his breath, straining his ears to hear any movement that might indicate his brother’s presence. Straight ahead in the distance he heard the crash and crackle of something or somebody moving fast.

  His heartbeat quickened as he hurried toward the noise. Samuel probably didn’t know that he was running up the mountain toward the cliff that overlooked the town he had owned.

  Micah prayed he didn’t veer from his current direction. If he continued, he’d find himself stuck between a killer drop-off at a cliff and the brother he’d tried to have murdered. Dead end. Dead Samuel.

  As Micah continued to track his brother’s movements, he felt as if they were the only two people in the entire world. Cain and Abel. Micah didn’t remember much about the biblical brothers, but he was pretty sure that Cain had nothing on Samuel when it came to wicked intent.

  The clouds overhead parted and the shine of the moon filtered down, allowing Micah enough illumination to turn off his flashlight. He was in soldier mode now, calm and with his mind blank and his heartbeat slow and steady.

  He didn’t think about Samuel being his brother, rather the man he hunted. The man he chased was a faceless, nameless enemy. It was nothing personal, simply business that had to be taken care of and he couldn’t allow the enemy to leave the mountain.

  He had no idea if his enemy was armed. Micah had his gun, but despite everything that Samuel had done, Micah wasn’t sure he could look his brother in his eyes and shoot him. That would be too easy.

  Samuel would hate being locked up, put away in a prison where he had no power, where he had no flock to lead, no kingdom to rule. He would hate wearing a jumpsuit instead of his fancy silk shirts and sharing a communal shower with dozens of murderers and rapists.

  Micah stopped once again, realizing he’d almost reached the cliff. He crouched and moved slowly, cautiously and in a shaft of moonlight he saw his brother there, at the edge of the cliff, looking down on the town he’d built, on the town he owned and the mayhem he’d thought he’d escaped.

  As Micah stepped out of the woods and into the small clearing where Samuel stood, his brother whirled around to face him.

  “Ah, and so it ends the way it began, with just the two of us all alone,” Samuel said with a charming smile. “Are you going to shoot me with that gun?”

  “Only if you force me to,” Micah replied. “The

  difference between you and me is that I’ll do my own dirty work instead of sending a minion.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Samuel scoffed. “I don’t have minions. I can’t help it that people respect me and want to follow my teachings.”

  “It’s just us now, Samuel. There’s nobody else around so it’s not necessary for you to put on your act.”

  Samuel’s smile fell as he gazed at Micah in speculation. “How much money would it take for you to let me walk off this mountain?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he stared down Micah.

  A dry laugh escaped Micah. “You don’t have that much money, but you can start by telling the truth. You killed those women, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Samuel said as he took a step backward, coming precariously close to the edge of the cliff.

  “Cut the crap,” Micah said impatiently. He needed closure. He needed to know what had happened to those women, what had happened to Johanna. It was the last piece of a puzzle that he wanted to know.

  Samuel studied him as if he were a peculiar specimen beneath a microscope slide. “They were supposed to be my women. Their allegiance was supposed to be to me, but one by one they pulled away, they started to work against me.” He said the words as if amazed that such a thing could happen. “Don’t you understand? I had to get rid of them. They each threatened all that I had built here. They tried to undermine what I had worked so hard to control.” He shrugged. “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.”

  “For your greater good,” Micah replied, trying to control the rage of emotions that shook his insides.

  “I’m not going to prison.” Samuel took another step toward the cliff and it was at that moment, Micah knew his brother would rather jump to his own death than face a day in jail. And Micah was just as determined that Samuel wouldn’t get his easy out.

  He anticipated Samuel’s move, dropped his gun and leaped forward on his stomach to the ground as Samuel stepped off the edge of the cliff. He managed to grab his brother’s wrist as he hung over the abyss.

  Micah’s entire body began to tremble with the strain of hanging on and keeping Samuel alive and as he gazed into the cult leader’s eyes, he saw the panic of a man who wanted to live, but was willing to die if he had to face the consequences of his crimes.

  “Let me go,” Samuel said.

  “Not a chance,” Micah said, sweat running into his eyes and down the sides of his face as he hunkered against the earth with Samuel’s weight threatening to drag him forward. Micah wrapped a leg around a nearby young tree trunk and grabbed Samuel’s wrist with both hands, determined not to let him fall.

  “She was a virgin, you know,” Samuel said, his voice a sly purr. “Johanna, she was a sweet virgin when I first took her and I used her every day until she was all worn out.”

  A red curtain of blind rage swept over Micah. There was nothing more he wanted to do than release his hold, allow Samuel to fall down the side of the mountain and die. Samuel laughed, as if he knew Micah’s torment and reveled in it.

  Drop him, a little voice whispered. Just let him go. It would be so easy. It would all be done. Samuel would be done.

  With a roar and a burst of nearly inhuman strength, driven by a rage he’d never felt before, Micah pulled up Samuel over the lip of the cliff and then collapsed into a boneless heap.

  “Good job,” Hawk said as he stepped from the woods. He slammed his foot into Samuel’s back and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

  Auras danced in front of Micah’s eyes as he slowly sat up, watching dully as Hawk hauled Samuel to his feet and cuffed his hands behind him.

  “He’s responsible for all the murdered women,” Micah said, fighting the building, nauseating pound in the side of his head. “He confessed to me.�
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  “He’s lying,” Samuel replied indignantly. “I wouldn’t confess to something I didn’t do. He’s crazy. He shoved me off the cliff and tried to kill me.”

  Randy and another FBI agent entered the clearing. Randy grabbed Samuel as Hawk gave him a smile of amusement. “It’s a funny thing about working a case where you don’t know exactly who you can trust. I learned early in my career that there was only one way to make sure there were never any misunderstandings.”

  He pulled a small tape recorder from his pocket. “It’s running now as we speak and it was taping when you told your brother about having to get rid of those women.” He turned to his men. “You know what to do, so take off.”

  Micah was vaguely aware of the two agents leaving with Samuel. Hawk crouched down next to Micah. “I thought you were going to let him go.”

  “I wanted to. God, I can’t tell you how much I wanted to, but death is way too easy for him. It was what he wanted and this time he wasn’t going to win.” The speech left Micah depleted, sickened by his migraine, and as he lay back against the cool grass, he knew no more.

  * * *

  It was the middle of the night. Ethan was sleeping in the little bed next to his brother’s crib after spending the last hour cradled in her arms.

  “I tried really hard to be brave,” he’d said to her earlier, before he’d dropped off to sleep. “I knew you wouldn’t forget about me even though Mrs. Lathrop said I was going to go live with a new family.”

  “I would never, ever let that happen,” Olivia had replied as she’d hugged him close. She’d sat with him until he’d fallen asleep and only then had she gone into the kitchen to see what the news was from town.

  Unfortunately, there was no news. There was only June at the table. Darcy had gone into town to meet Rafe the minute Hawk had placed Devin into her arms.

  Jesse was outside standing guard at the entrance to make sure that none of the Devotees escaping from town and up into the mountains found their way inside the safe house.

  Now that Ethan was where he belonged, there was only one person that filled Olivia’s head, that filled her heart. Micah. Where was he? Was he okay? A new ache of absence had taken up residence inside her.

  I’ll never forget you. That’s what he’d said as she, Hawk and Randy had hurried away with the children. I’ll never forget you. What exactly did that mean? Did it mean he loved her? Were those simple words supposed to last her a lifetime? It hadn’t been enough.

  With each hour of night that ticked by, her concern grew more intense. What was happening in the

  “perfect” town of Cold Plains? Had the FBI managed to arrest all of Samuel’s minions? Was Samuel now in custody? Where was Micah? Why hadn’t he returned to the safe house?

  Breakfast came and went as did an uneasy lunch. Nobody had come in who had been in town the night before. Hawk hadn’t checked in, Micah was still gone and Olivia felt as if she was slowly losing her mind.

  After lunch, with both boys down for naps, Olivia was desperate to talk to somebody, to anybody who had been in town and could tell her what had happened. She needed to know what had happened to Micah.

  “Once things settle down, they’ll probably relocate you and the boys,” June said. The two women were seated at the table and the cave rang with an unusual silence.

  Olivia shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.”

  “Jesse said he’d heard radio talk that the FBI have twenty people under arrest.” She hesitated a minute and then continued, “But there’s been no word about either Samuel or Micah. Nobody seems to know what happened to the two of them.”

  “So, they didn’t arrest Samuel with the others?” Olivia’s heart sank.

  “Maybe by now they have,” June replied hopefully. “Maybe that’s what’s taken Micah so long to get back here.”

  Olivia grasped onto the hope that at any minute Micah would walk through the door. Even though she had Ethan back, she couldn’t move forward until she knew the fate of the man who had been responsible for his return. Even though she knew there was no future with Micah, she had to know what had happened to the man she loved.

  Night had fallen and the boys were once again in bed when not Micah, but Hawk came into the safe house. He appeared weary beyond exhaustion as he sank down at the table with June, Jesse and Olivia.

  “What’s the news from town?” June asked anxiously.

  “Is Samuel in jail?” Olivia asked.

  Hawk shook his head, his jaw tense. “Samuel escaped into the mountains. We’ve arrested Wilma

  Lathrop and Bo Fargo, who have told us that they were behind the kidnapping and adoption scheme of the children. They insist that Samuel knew nothing about it.”

  “So, once again he’s like the Teflon king and you all won’t have any real charges to press against him when he eventually resurfaces,” June said in disgust.

  “We’ve cut off a lot of his tentacles. One of his main henchmen, Dax Roberts, the man who shot Micah months ago, is dead after a gun battle with an agent. Most of his other known men have been arrested. All the Devotees are going to be lost and questioning where to turn from here.”

  Olivia was glad Dax Roberts was dead. He’d tried to kill Micah and now had paid the ultimate price for his allegiance with the devil.

  Hawk leaned back in his chair and swept a hand through his sandy hair, his brown eyes holding a bone weariness. “We still don’t know how deep the corruption ran. We can’t know after this initial sweep if we got everyone who needed to be arrested. But it was a start, and if Samuel does return, he’ll have his work cut out for him rebuilding what he once had.”

  Olivia felt as if she might explode. He was talking about people she didn’t care about and hadn’t once mentioned the name of the man she needed to know about most of all. She could stand it no longer.

  “Micah.” His name burst from her lips. “Where is Micah?”

  Hawk’s eyes darkened. “Actually, I came by here to see if I could borrow you for a while. There’s someplace I need to take you.”

  Olivia stared at him, her heart in her throat. “Where? Where do you want to take me?”

  He looked around at the others at the table. “Just come with me, Olivia. Don’t ask questions. Trust me, this is something that has to be done.”

  Something that had to be done? Like saying goodbye to a dead man? Fear leaped into her throat, bitter and vile tasting.

  “I’ll keep an eye on the boys,” June said gently. “There’s no reason to pull them from their sleep.”

  Olivia stared at her blankly. Was Micah dead? Did Hawk want to take her to where his body was to give her final closure?

  On wooden legs she rose as Hawk also stood. She wanted to know now. She needed to know at this moment if Micah was dead or alive, but Hawk’s eyes were dark and hooded, closed off to any more questions she might have.

  June got up from the table and gave Olivia a hug. “Don’t worry about the boys. They’ll be fine here.” As she released Olivia, her eyes held a sympathy Olivia didn’t want to acknowledge.

  She grabbed a jacket against the cold night air and followed Hawk as he left the safe house and down the mountain to a street on the outskirts of Cold Plains where a car awaited them.

  Hawk got behind the wheel as she slid into the passenger seat, her heart thudding with a dread that made her feel nauseous. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” she finally asked as he pulled away and headed out of town.

  “Unfortunately I don’t have the clearance to tell you anything. I’m just following orders.”

  Orders? Orders from whom? She loved Micah and if he was dead, he’d given his life all for nothing. Samuel was on the loose and there were still criminals walking the streets of Cold Plains.

  Even though he’d told her he was
n’t cut out to be a husband or father, there had been a part of her that had retained hope that somehow she could change his mind, that he would love her more than he feared a romantic commitment.

  Now that hope was gone. But she reminded herself that his death hadn’t all been in vain. Ethan was back where he belonged, as was Devin Black. If Micah was dead, then he’d died a hero.

  This thought was little comfort as she fought against the tears that burned at her eyes. As she stared out into the darkness, she realized they were on the highway that would take them into the town of Laramie.

  She frowned over at Hawk, who hadn’t said a word for the last forty minutes. Was it possible that Micah wasn’t dead but rather had been sent to the hospital here with grave wounds?

  Was Hawk giving her a chance to tell Micah a final goodbye before he died? Her heart squeezed so tight at the thought she could barely draw her next breath.

  When they reached the town, Hawk pulled up in front of a three-story hotel and stopped the engine. He turned to look at her, his eyes gleaming with a kindness that was nearly her undoing.

  He pulled a room card key from his pocket and handed it to her. “Room 212. Everything will be explained. Now, go.”

  She got out of the car, unsure if she was walking into disaster or something else. Nerves jumped inside her stomach as she proceeded, unsteady on her feet, across the lobby floor and punched the elevator button for the second floor.

  What was going on here? Why was she here? As the elevator doors whooshed opened, she stepped inside, heart pounding and nerves screaming just beneath the surface of her skin.

  When she reached the second floor, she exited the elevator and walked down the hallway to 212. She paused outside the door, afraid to go inside, afraid not to. What or who was behind the door?

  She slid the key through the slot and saw the green light flicker to let her know she could open the door. With a deep breath, she pushed it open and realized the room was a compact suite. The space she entered was like a small living room and a man she’d never seen before jumped up from the sofa, a gun pointed at her.