by Diana Layne
MJ refused to get out of the car, and then she noticed Ben hadn’t budged either, leaving Jeff in the awkward position of bending down to talk to her.
“Why didn’t you tell me Keith was still alive?”
“I didn’t know!” His protest sounded genuine enough, but she reminded herself he was in the business of lying. They all were. Or had been.
“Not the story he told.”
“Whatever he told you were lies.”
“I don’t have proof yet, Jeff, but I’ll get it. You better be watching your ass.”
“Don’t threaten me, MJ.” Jeff’s tone grew hard.
“No,” Ben spoke up with his own warning. “Don’t threaten her. Don’t you do one little thing to mess up that adoption.”
“That sounds like a threat,” Jeff growled.
Ben cocked his head, shrugged and drilled Jeff with his gaze. “Take it as one.”
MJ turned to Dana. “Can we go to the hospital now?”
“Sure thing.” Dana put the car that she’d never turned off into gear, and drove away. Ben shut the door as they left Jeff staring.
* * *
At the hospital, Ben stayed with MJ in the emergency room. A flurry of activity surrounded Tasha, until the nurses and doctors whisked her off to surgery. Ben, with input from MJ, took care of what paperwork he could. Since the police, specifically his relatives he told her, had been involved in the rescue, he had already filled in most of the blanks with the authorities, and he, along with Vista, would take care of any unanswered questions later.
When she was finally escorted into an examining room, Ben stayed with her as the nurse cleaned and made note of MJ’s various wounds. When the doctor showed up, Ben gave MJ a kiss on the forehead and told her he was going to check on Tasha.
Ben came back just long enough to tell her Tasha was still in the OR. “I’m heading to the station to wrap up the last of the reports with Dana,” he said. “I’ll see you again soon.”
The doctor examined her, recommended she be admitted for observation, since she had a nasty knot and cut on the back of her head as well as a gash on her forehead, and then her jaw was no pretty sight either.
When an x-ray showed her brain uninjured, she refused admittance—she’d had worse injuries and survived, and she didn’t want to be away from her daughter one more night. So the doctor stitched her up and signed the paperwork to release her.
MJ found her way to the OR waiting room but saw no sign of Ben. After checking at the nurse’s station and learning Tasha was still in surgery, MJ paced the carpeted floor alone.
Waiting.
She maybe should have been praying again, but she was too numb. When she had time to think about it, she would need to reflect on how her life could have been so different had her parents lived. She’d have to take time to mourn once again. Later.
So she waited. And paced. Worried about Tasha. Worried about Angel. And as Ben didn’t show up, she started wondering how much longer he’d be? She would like to talk to him, see him, possibly even hold onto him for strength now that he’d proved himself trustworthy. She couldn’t be blamed for doubting him, but once someone proved trustworthy, that was a person to keep around. At least for a while.
Maybe not permanently, and no one mentioned permanence. Her life lay in another direction. But it was good to know she could call Ben a friend, and she wanted to tell him so. Thank him.
MJ had been pacing for well over an hour when the doctor came out. Since she had been in the emergency room over three hours herself, waiting her turn, that meant Tasha had been in surgery at least four hours.
“How is she?” MJ asked.
The doctor looked grim. “The bullet went through the top of her stomach, tore part of her spleen. She lost quite a bit of blood. We patched her up, gave her two pints of blood. Now we wait, hope she heals and infection doesn’t set in.”
“When can I see her?”
“She’ll be in ICU a few days when she comes out of recovery. Check at the nurse’s station for the schedule.”
“Thank you,” MJ said. She finally sank down onto the couch, her body suddenly feeling as if it were weighted down with enough bricks to build a house.
She hadn’t moved even a millimeter, sitting stone still on the hard-upholstered couch when she heard someone come into the waiting room a few minutes later.
MJ looked up expecting to see Ben. A smile died on her lips when Dana walked through the door, striding at a fast clip even though it was the end of the day and she should be tired like normal people, right? MJ watched Ben’s sister. Her manner said cop even without the clue of the dark gray pantsuit and shoulder holster evident under the jacket. And now that MJ had a full view, Dana’s features said Ben. Same dark exotic eyes and a luxurious black mane of hair.
“She still in surgery?” Dana asked.
MJ shook her head. “Recovery.”
“It’ll be a while before you can see her, then. Why don’t you come with me?”
“I thought Ben was taking care of the paperwork. Although I don’t know where he is at the moment, he should be finished by now. . .” MJ’s head started pounding; the pain killer must be wearing off, no, that couldn’t be right, she’d just taken the pain killer hadn’t she? Perhaps now that Tasha was out of danger, everything was catching up to her. MJ blinked to clear her fuzzy thoughts.
“I’m taking you to your daughter.”
MJ jumped out of her seat, then immediately regretted the sudden move as her head exploded. She resisted grabbing her head, though temptation to hold it together was strong. In a voice subdued by pain, she asked, “You know where she is?”
Dana cocked her head and stared at MJ as if she should know. “She’s with my mom.”
“That was really your mom? Ben’s mom?”
“Yes,” Dana laughed. “Ben has a mother, hard to believe, I know.” A smile still on her face, she said, “C’mon.”
MJ grinned, then stumbled as she attempted to follow.
Dana stopped, put a hand on MJ’s elbow. “Need help?”
“I’m a little dizzy. My head’s hurting.”
“No doubt. I’ll try not to walk so fast.”
Dana, who seemed to exude energy, visibly held herself back in deference to MJ. They exited the hospital into the parking lot.
“How did you know I was finished?” MJ asked.
“I’ve had experience with gunshots, line of business I’m in.”
“Where’s Ben? Still at the station?”
“He’s finished there now. He mentioned another errand.”
Once in the car, anticipation edged out the pain. Soon, MJ would see Angel again. It might have only been days since they’d been separated, but that didn’t ease the anguish, at least on MJ’s end.
“Hungry?” Dana asked. “Mom’ll probably have some leftovers, but if you don’t want to wait, we can stop somewhere.”
“I don’t feel like eating anything now, thanks.” MJ just wanted to get her baby, go to a hotel and sleep.
Dana held silent as she drove, seeming to know MJ craved quiet. She took Highway 51, heading toward Broken Arrow. Fifteen minutes later, she turned off on a farm road, obviously heading for a rural community.
MJ sat up and took notice. “Your parents live out in the boonies?”
“Pretty much. They own a ranch.”
“Oh, that explains a lot.”
Dana’s smile was in her voice. “I’m not even going to ask.” She soon turned on a dirt road, then pointed to a fence. “Our property starts here.” Then she kept driving. And driving.
About a half mile later, she turned onto another road, this one gravel. A cattle guard and a rocked entrance way with a sign above it branded with a “W” and a curved mark under it signified the entrance to the land, MJ assumed.
Dana confirmed MJ’s assumption. “Welcome to the Rockin’ W.”
Peaceful, remote. What on earth made Ben leave this idyllic place to work for Vista? He’d been in the mili
tary first she remembered. “Why’d Ben join the military with somewhere like this to call home?” MJ realized she sounded nosy, but then again, Dana had been nosy herself, and MJ figured Ben’s sister wouldn’t mind twenty questions.
“To get away from his sisters?” Dana laughed.
“There’s five of you, right?”
“Yep, and he’s the oldest.”
“Only boy out of six kids.” No wonder he was so responsible, doing things like marrying a pregnant woman to keep her from being killed.
“My dad kept trying, hoping to get another boy. Our baby sister is named Hope.”
MJ caught onto the name. “He planned on having another one?”
“Yep, until my mom said enough was enough.”
“At least one of them had sense,” MJ muttered, thinking of trying five times to get one more boy.
Dana heard her and laughed as she turned into a circular drive in front of a sprawling red brick ranch house. “Yeah, especially since the wedding bills fall on the father of the bride.”
“Are all the sisters married?”
“No, still a few to go.”
“Serves him right,” MJ said to herself after Dana shut off the engine and climbed out of the car.
The front door opened. Expecting to see Ben and Angelina, disappointment settled when she realized it was simply the woman who’d had Angel at the fast food place. Ben’s mother.
The woman smiled as MJ and Dana approached. “Hi, I’m Abby.” She took MJ’s hands in her own. “Angelina is just down for the night.”
Disappointment washed over MJ. She tried to appear polite and gracious.
“I tried to keep her awake, but she’s had a busy couple of days, not much time for a nap this afternoon.”
“Thank you for taking care of her.”
“No trouble. Would you like something to eat or a shower first?”
“Shower?” Confusion clouded MJ’s already suffering brain. “I thought I’d take Angel and go to a hotel, not that I know what I’d drive. I’d need someone to take–”
“Nonsense,” Abby cut in. “We’ve got plenty of room here, you’ll stay tonight. Ben brought Tasha’s car here, but there’s no need for you to leave.”
“Tasha’s . . . car? Oh, yeah . . . Oh, wait, her dog! Where’s her dog?”
“That ferocious furball?” Dana asked. “We got him earlier. He’s out in the backyard running with the big dogs.”
“Big dogs? Is that safe?”
“For him, yes. They’re puppies, and he thinks he’s king of the mountain.”
A yawn escaped MJ, she was too tired to even smile at the image.
“You’re tired,” Abby said. “I’ll show you to your room. You can shower and sleep. Or sleep then shower. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
“If you wake up hungry,” Dana added, “just raid the fridge.”
“Yes, of course,” Abby added, leading MJ down a hallway.
“We’ll talk tomorrow, Mom,” Dana called after them and turned in the opposite direction to leave.
“Here’s your room. See, Angel’s sleeping right over there in the corner.”
Yes, there was her darling, sound asleep. “You had a crib?”
Abby stood to one side so MJ could enter the room. “I have grandchildren.”
That would make Ben an uncle as well as brother. Not a hard image to reconcile. MJ walked over and ran her fingers across the sleeping baby’s cheek. Angelina smiled in her sleep. “Hi, sweetie, mom’s here,” MJ whispered.
“She’s a doll.”
“I can’t believe I’m here.”
“It’ll all seem better in the morning.” Abby brushed into the room, turned on the light in the connected Jack-and-Jill bathroom. She opened the cabinet, set out towels on the counter. “Your suitcase is by the closet door. We didn’t know which was yours or Tasha, so we brought them both.”
“Thank you,” MJ said. “You’re very kind.”
“No trouble at all. Get some rest.”
She whisked out of the room. The women of the family moved so fast, and seemed at such odds with Ben who moved at a slower pace. Of course, that could be a deliberate tactic he used to set someone at ease.
MJ’s head pounded. Ben was not a subject she wanted to think about tonight even if it did seem he’d pulled a disappearing trick.
She’d worry about it later. For now, shower, then bed. Anything else could wait until tomorrow.
* * *
The morning sun didn’t faze MJ, but Angel bouncing in the crib managed to rouse her from sleep. She’d pulled the portable crib over close to the bed, so she could put her hands through the bars and touch Angel while she slept.
“Momma Momma Momma,” Angel said, holding onto the rail and bouncing.
MJ cautiously opened her eyes, conscious of her aching head. “Morning, Angel,” she said in soft voice.
“Momma Momma.”
“And aren’t you just chipper and full of energy?”
She pushed up to her knees and lifted Angel out of the crib and over to the bed. Angel gave her neck a big squeeze. MJ fell over laughing and crying at the same time.
“Oh, I’ve missed you.”
After spending some alone time with Angel, hunger drove them out of the room to join Ben’s mother.
“Ben’s gone to retrieve your car from Indiana,” Abby said.
Awfully presumptuous of him, but the way MJ felt, she wasn’t going to argue. Especially not with his mother.
More disturbing was the news she learned when she called Tex to bring him up to date.
“I’m gonna close the shop for a couple of weeks,” he told her. “Dottie’s still shaken up by losing Angel.”
“But it wasn’t your fault,” MJ protested. “There were two professionals after her.”
“Yeah, and we’re damn lucky one of them didn’t end up dead in our yard.”
“True,” MJ said.
“You understand she needs a break.”
“Of course, I do. Give her our love,” MJ said, and disconnected, thinking two weeks with nothing to do would be a nice reprieve. She could spend time with Tasha and with Angel.
MJ tried once again to go to a hotel, but Abby insisted they stay. So MJ and Angelina spent the next few days with Ben’s family. She learned more about his sisters, from Dana, the oldest girl, named after a grandmother, then Eddie May, named after another grandmother, and with a manly enough ring to satisfy Ben’s father even though she wasn’t another boy. Then onto Faith, from Ben’s father that he had faith they would have another boy; Grace, that God would have grace on them and give them another boy, and then finally to Hope, where Abby finally put her foot down and quashed the last of Carl’s hope. No more kids. No more boys.
Ben’s father, Carl, finally accepted the verdict and raised his daughters like boys, and each of them worked on the ranch as much as Ben. Though apparently Hope, the most girly of the girls, still managed to wear dresses and ruffles, and once she turned eighteen, refused to muck out another barn stall.
MJ could certainly sympathize with the barn thing. She held no fondness for barns herself.
One day a light snow fell, and she and Angel spent the morning outside. Living further south, MJ doubted Angel would see snow once they were back in Texas. MJ enjoyed watching Angel catch flakes on her chubby hands.
Abby volunteered to watch Angel each day while MJ made a trip to the hospital. MJ had to wait for the ICU visiting time, and the first two days when she got in to see Tasha, the woman was awake, but too groggy from pain medication to mumble more than a few words.
On the third day, Tasha was awake and cognizant.
“I keep expecting cops to show up,” she admitted.
“Jeff’s still alive, but I think he is going to back off. At least for a while. He threatened me in front of Ben and his sister. Ben threatened him back, and his sister is a detective.”
“Interesting. And Keith?”
“Dead this time. For good. They
recovered his body.” And with that, relief had settled on MJ. Watching him die the second time seemed to be a catharsis she needed. Warped as that sounded.
“I have to find Niko, then we can pursue Jeff. And there’s still that Russian connection.” Tasha ticked off her list, as determined as ever.
“If you haven’t noticed, you’re a little shot up.”
“It’s not like you can go after him.”
A pang fell over MJ at the realization. “No, I can’t.”
“I’ve got time to recover anyway. I can’t possibly go to Russia in the winter. I might be Russian, but I’m not fond of frigid temperatures, and we might have to travel some rough terrain to get out of there.”
“It’s going to be tough enough after winter.”
“At least I have an idea of where to start looking for him,” Tasha said.
MJ cocked her head, trying to access a memory. “I seem to remember hearing there was a man at Vista who was once in a Russian prison–”
“Matt Kincaid.” Tasha nodded. “He was my partner for a time.”
Surprised lifted MJ’s eyebrows. “You had a partner?”
“I know, hard to believe, right?” A brief smile flitted on her face. “Once upon a time we were partners, yes. For a short while.”
“Then maybe he’ll help?”
Tasha frowned. “I already asked. He said no.”
What an impossible situation. MJ worked hard not to be discouraged; she’d run into tough problems before, but this time Niko’s life might be on the line. The possibility of never seeing Niko again was all too real.
Tasha had no trouble reading MJ’s mind. “I’ll get him, MJ.” She clasped MJ’s hand. “I’ll get him.”
Chapter 30
Later that night as MJ slept, she thought she was having an erotic dream sharing a passionate kiss with Ben, when she realized the dream was real.
What the hell? She opened her eyes. Turning her head to break the lip lock, she looked into Ben’s eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Why is it you always ask me that? Am I really such a bad kisser you have to ask?”
“Perhaps if you didn’t wake me out of a sound sleep by trying to take out my tonsils . . .”
