“What’s that?”
Her dimples flashed. “At least you didn’t tell me what to do or accuse me of breaking one of your rules.”
His laughter surprised him, momentarily breaking the tension that had held him in its grip. The laughter felt good and he gazed at her almost gratefully. “I told you I didn’t have any rules for lovemaking.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t sure I believed you.”
Unfortunately the light moment between them lasted only a minute as the sound of gravel beneath car wheels drifted through the window.
He jumped up from the sofa and was at the front door as Jim Ramsey pulled his patrol car to a halt in the driveway. Once again the twist was in his gut as he watched the beefy man climb out of his car and head toward the porch.
Because it had been Jim Ramsey who had delivered the news of his mother’s death, Tanner had never been able to completely separate Ramsey from his mother’s murder. In his mind, the two were forever bound together in tragedy, even though Tanner knew it was irrational.
In Jim’s hand he carried a brown bag that Tanner knew contained the clothes Linda Wilcox had been wearing before somebody slammed her over the head.
“Tanner.” Jim greeted him with a grim smile. “You know I’m breaking about a hundred rules to bring you these clothes.” He stepped through the door and nodded to Anna, then turned once again to Tanner. “You going to tell me what the hell is going on?”
Tanner hesitated a moment. Although he and Jim had always been civil to one another and there had been times in the past when Tanner had called on the sheriff to help him with a protection problem, Tanner had never felt any bond, no real connection to the man. He’d always felt that the sheriff helped not because he respected Tanner and the work they did, but merely because it was his job.
“Let me see what you’ve got and I’ll tell you if anything is going on,” he said. He gestured for the sheriff and Anna to follow him into the kitchen.
He didn’t want to tell Ramsey any more than necessary. He still believed that Anna’s safety depended on nobody knowing who she was.
He could tell Ramsey wasn’t pleased with his answer, but the sheriff walked into the kitchen and set the bag on the table after giving a curt nod to Smokey.
“Where’s your father?” he asked as he opened the bag.
“He drove into Oklahoma City this morning,” Tanner replied. His father had left before dawn to see what he could find out about the murder of the woman Zack had been protecting.
Red wanted to talk to the authorities and to get the details of what had gone wrong. Tanner knew it was his father’s attempt to find out something, anything, that would ease Zack’s guilt and grief.
“What can you tell me about Linda’s attack?” Tanner asked, aware of Anna moving closer to him as if needing him near as she heard the details.
“Mind if I sit?” Ramsey didn’t wait for a reply, but pulled out a chair and eased down, the bag in front of him on the table. “Been a long day and it isn’t even noon yet.”
Anna sank into the chair across from him and Tanner wondered if it would have been better had she gone to her room and not been a part of any of this.
Sitting next to Ramsey, he reminded himself that she needed to be here. She needed to know what was going on. After all, it was her life, her safety they were concerned about.
“Early this morning Ted Miller went into the alley behind his feed store to empty some garbage cans. That’s where he found Linda.” Ramsey shook his head. “Like I told you on the phone, she’d been knocked pretty hard on the back of her head. She was unconscious when she was found, but she came to about an hour ago.”
“Was she able to tell you who attacked her?” Tanner asked.
Jim frowned once again. “She doesn’t know. She remembers going to Betty’s and buying new clothes. She changed into them before she left the shop, then she went to the café for dinner. It was as she was walking home that somebody came up from behind and dragged her into the alley. It was dark, and she said whoever it was shined a flashlight in her face, cursed, then slammed her in the head and that’s all she remembers.”
“Any suspects?” Tanner was aware of Anna leaning forward, her eyes begging Ramsey to have a suspect in custody or at least somebody in mind.
“None.” Ramsey’s blunt features pulled together in a frown. “She’s a nice young woman who doesn’t seem to have an enemy in the world. No boyfriend in the picture at the moment, no old boyfriends that were threatening or seemed to be any kind of a problem. Why did you want me to bring her clothes?”
“I just want to look at them,” Tanner said.
Ramsey’s brown eyes held Tanner’s gaze. “You got a reason you’re willing to share?”
“I’ll let you know if I find what I’m looking for.”
Ramsey frowned, but he reluctantly reached his hand into the bag and withdrew the two articles of clothing. The first item he pulled out of the bag was a long navy skirt, the same one Anna had worn when she’d first come into Tanner’s office, the same one she’d left at Betty’s on the day they had bought her new clothing.
Tanner took the skirt and began to check every inch of it, feeling the fabric, staring at the detail of material and thread. He focused on finding something—anything—that would explain how it was possible that the rebels might have come to Cotter Creek and thought that Linda was the princess they sought.
“What are you looking for?” Anna asked.
“I’m not sure.”
They were all silent as Tanner worked his fingers over every inch of the skirt. When he was finished he motioned for Jim to hand him the blouse.
The blouse was silk with large decorative buttons down the front and at each wrist. He was aware of the tense silence of the room as he worked the silk through his fingers, exploring the blouse inch by inch.
“Smokey, hand me a mallet, would you?” he asked when he was finished going over the material.
“What are you fixing to do?” Jim asked, a touch of worry in his voice.
“I’ll show you.” Tanner took the mallet, normally used to tenderize meat, and without warning smashed it against one of the buttons on the blouse.
“Tanner!” Anna exclaimed as the button was crushed into pieces. Jim said nothing and Tanner had a feeling the sheriff knew exactly what he was doing.
Systematically Tanner crushed every button down the front of the blouse, then moved to the two on the wrists. He found what he had suspected in the first wrist button and his pulse thundered in his veins.
“What’s that?” Anna asked, staring at the tiny device that had been hidden inside the plump button.
Tanner held it up between his fingertips. “If I was to guess, I’d say this is some sort of tracking device. This is how they know you’re here in Cotter Creek.”
The afternoon took on a surreal quality for Anna. In the space of Tanner cracking open a button, everything had changed. She listened as he told Sheriff Ramsey her real identity and why she was here.
However, Tanner assured the sheriff things were under control and he didn’t need Ramsey to do anything but keep his mouth shut about Anna’s location. “It’s a matter of life or death to the princess,” he said.
After the sheriff left, Tanner, Smokey and Anna remained seated at the kitchen table as Tanner told Anna how everything had changed.
“Although they know you’re in Cotter Creek, it’s obvious by the attack on Linda that they aren’t sure exactly where you are,” he said.
“But it’s just a matter of time,” she said flatly.
He nodded, his eyes darkly hooded. “Unfortunately, we just ran out of time. If that tracking device was working when Jim arrived, then they will have tracked the blouse to this ranch. We need to make immediate adjustments.”
“Like what?” There was no hint of the man who had made love to her the night before or the man who had laughed with her a little while ago. His green eyes were cold, calculating, and she felt his energy
as if it were another human presence in the room.
“The first thing I’m going to do is triple the guards around the house. I want armed guards every ten feet around the perimeter. I’ll also put some on the road coming up to the house. But the major difference is that you aren’t going to be here.”
Anna frowned. “But my father is expecting me to be here.”
“You’ll be here at the ranch, but you won’t be here in this house.”
She stared at him with wariness. “You aren’t going to stick me in the stable, are you?” She’d hoped for a smile, but got none.
His jaw was tense, his lips a grim slash. “We’ll move you after dark tonight. We’ll move you to my place.” He exchanged looks with Smokey. “Hopefully the guard presence on this house will work as a diversion. The rebels will assume you’re in here because of the visibility of the guards.”
He looked back at Anna. “The only way the rebels will know that you aren’t in this house is if they come through my men.” His jaw clenched tighter. “And that’s not going to happen.”
Anna fought against a shiver. For the past three days she’d felt utterly safe here at the ranch. She’d believed the rebels had had no idea where she was, no idea how to find her, but now she knew simply by looking into Tanner’s bottle-green eyes that danger was near, far too near.
Tanner turned his attention to her once again. “Why don’t you go pack your things? Smokey will find you a suitcase to use, and while you’re doing that I’m going to make some phone calls.”
The afternoon and evening alternated between flying too fast for thoughts and creeping by with excruciating slowness. Anna packed her things into a small suitcase, then returned to the living room to sit on the sofa and wait until dinner.
She was aware of men arriving and departing from Tanner’s study, hard-looking men with rifles in hand and a grim purpose in their steps. Although they were all dressed like cowpokes, she knew they were much more than that. They were the men who would be on guard duty here at the house.
It was just after a quiet supper that Red returned from the city. Tanner took his father into the study and Anna knew he was filling Red in on what had occurred and the new plans Tanner had made.
As the two men remained locked in the study, Anna helped Smokey clear the table. “You doing okay?” Smokey asked.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“A princess helping to clear a table doesn’t happen every day around here.”
She flashed him a quick smile. “If you’re nice to me, this princess might even help wash and dry the dishes.” She grabbed the plates off the table and followed Smokey into the kitchen. “I kind of like doing this kind of work,” she said. “Nobody has ever let me before.”
“Any housework you want to do around here, you knock yourself out, ain’t nobody going to tell you to stop,” Smokey replied. She laughed and decided that Smokey had a certain charm all his own.
They finished clearing the table, then stood side by side at the sink as Smokey washed and Anna dried. “Have you ever been married, Smokey?”
“Nah, never could find a woman who’d put up with me for more than a minute or two. Besides, for a lot of years I was needed here. Still am, far as I know.”
“Did you know Tanner’s mother?” she asked.
“Sure. Everyone knew Elizabeth West.” Smokey squirted more dish soap into the sinkful of water.
“What was she like?”
“She was a fine woman, always cooking pies for sick neighbors, taking baskets of goodies to the kids at the hospital. To look at her, you’d have thought she was one of those Hollywood types. She was Red’s first protection assignment.”
“Really?”
Smokey grabbed a dirty plate and sank it in the water. “She was making her second movie and Red was working on the set as a stunt man. Seems some wacko had taken a shine to her, was stalking her and scaring her. Red offered to work as her bodyguard and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Anna found the information interesting. She’d just assumed that Tanner’s mother had been born and raised in the small town with dreams no bigger than a house of her own and kids.
It intrigued her to know that Elizabeth had been a Hollywood starlet. She’d obviously had big dreams and, if she was making her second movie, a certain measure of success. But she’d left all that behind to marry Red and to move to Cotter Creek and have a house full of children.
“She didn’t mind moving out here?”
“According to what Red told me, she would have moved to Alaska and lived in an igloo if it meant being with him and having her family. Those were her priorities, not the tinsel and glitz of Hollywood.”
Elizabeth West had chosen the beauty of sunrises over the sparkle of jewels, the sound of childrens’ laughter instead of the raucous music of a club. She’d chosen the love of one good man over the adulation of thousands of fans. She’d obviously been not only beautiful, but smart, as well.
She and Smokey had just finished with the dishes when Tanner came into the kitchen, his features still set in the grim lines that had taken up residence for most of the afternoon.
“We’re all set,” he said as he sank onto a chair. “I’ve got all the men I need. Now all we do is wait until dark, then we move.”
She dried her hands on the dish towel, then joined him at the table. She wanted to touch him, to place her hand on his cheek, to lean her head against his chest to hear his heartbeat.
But she did none of these things. He looked forbidding, his features drawn tight, his eyes darker than she’d ever seen them. “I’ve got some questions for you,” he said. “Tell me exactly what happened on the night of the coup in Niflheim.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You told me that you were awakened and hustled away from the palace. Who woke you up? Who picked out the clothes you put on? Who had access to your clothing?” The questions came from him fast and sharp.
She frowned, trying to remember that night when she’d been awakened with the news that her life was in danger. Had it been only a little more than a week ago? It felt as if at least two lifetimes had passed since that night.
“I was awakened by one of my bodyguards. He burst into my room and told me that the palace was about to be lost to the rebels and my father and I had to leave immediately. Astrid, my personal assistant and maid, came in right behind him. She got my clothes for me. She packed a couple of suitcases for me.”
The sense of betrayal that swept through her cut deep and brought a small gasp to her lips. Tanner’s eyes softened slightly as he continued to gaze at her. “You didn’t pick out your own clothes? She got them for you?”
She nodded. “Astrid.” The name fell from her lips softly as her heart constricted tightly. “I thought she was my friend. She was the one person in my life I thought I could trust. I thought she cared about me, but she betrayed me. She had to have known about the tracking devices, had to have known what clothes to pack.”
“It’s possible somebody else could have been responsible.” he said. “Who knows how many of those little technical bugs might have been in your suitcases.”
Again a weary sense of betrayal filled her heart. Political intrigue, betrayal by friends…why would anyone want to be a king or a princess? Why would anyone want to live a life of never knowing whom to trust, whom to depend on?
At least here and now, she knew she could trust Tanner. She knew she could depend on him no matter what happened. She leaned back in her seat and sighed. “Thank you, Tanner, for everything you’re doing for me,” she said.
His brooding eyes flashed with a touch of impatience. “I’m just doing my job.”
His job. Yes, that’s what she needed to remember. Even though they had made love, she was nothing more than a job to him, an important job that if successful would earn Wild West Protective Services a sterling reputation and more success than Tanner could dream of.
Before anyone could say anything else the ba
ck door opened and Zack walked in. He nodded at Anna, then looked at his brother. “Heard there might be some trouble,” he said.
Tanner stood. “Could be.”
“Know what you’re up against?”
“Don’t have a clue,” Tanner replied, his frustration evident in his voice.
“I’ll stand guard duty. I’m not coming back to work for the agency, but I’ll help protect what is ours,” Zack said.
It was at that moment that Anna truly realized what was at risk. Her presence was threatening not only the lives of each and every person on the ranch, but the very ranch itself. The rebels could set off a bomb, toss a grenade or set a fire to the West family home.
These people were risking everything for her, and in that instant Anna realized she was precariously close to falling in love with Tanner West.
Chapter 11
Darkness didn’t steal in gently, but seemed to drop like a blanket across the earth. Clouds obscured even the faintest moonlight, which suited Tanner’s needs very well.
The darkness was their friend when it came to moving Anna from the big house into his home. Although the distance between the two structures wasn’t that great, it was a distance where they would be vulnerable to a sniper’s intent.
Finding the bug in the button of Anna’s blouse had galvanized and recentered him. He was angry with himself for growing lax, for succumbing to Anna’s charm and momentarily forgetting exactly what was at stake.
It was not only the reputation of the agency at risk if something should go wrong, but Anna’s very life. Failure definitely wasn’t an option.
It was just before ten when he and Anna prepared to leave the house. The guards were on duty, silent sentries watching for danger.
He turned to Anna, saw the slight tremble to her lips, the paleness of her skin. “It’s going to be fine,” he said. “All you need to do when we step outside is to hold my hand and keep quiet. You ready?”
She nodded and he grabbed her hand in one of his, her suitcase in the other. Together they walked out the front door then stepped off the porch and headed in the direction of his house. Her hand was cool in his and trembled slightly. The feel of it, so soft and yielding, swelled in his chest.
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