Gray Wolf Security: Wyoming

by Glenna Sinclair

  Imagine the life you’d have to live to have such deep frown lines at such a young age!

  He’d wanted to stop those frown lines from ever getting any deeper. He wanted to fill her life with all the happiness one person could experience in a lifetime. He had all these plans… and then one misstep took it all away.

  “I understand most of Gray Wolf’s other employees are former military. Are those the kind of people he’ll be sending our way?”

  Sutherland finished her glass of wine. I poured another as she spoke.

  “He’s already sent me a few resumes, and most of them are former military. One guy is still in the military, but he expects to receive an honorary discharge in a month or so. There’s a couple of women, too, which surprised me a little. I’m not sure why.”

  “Plenty of women in the military.”

  “I know. I was one of them. But… I just assumed that these operatives would all be men. You know, you think of these kinds of people and you think of… well, you.”

  My eyebrows rose. “Me?”

  “Yeah. Big, silent types, the kind of men who don’t get emotionally attached. The kind of men who could scare away a criminal by just existing because of the sheer size of him, the detachment on his face, the body that says ‘I took down Bin Laden.’”

  I laughed. “Is that what I look like?”

  “Except when you laugh like that. It looks good on you, Hank.”

  I inclined my head to acknowledge the compliment as I took a sip of my own wine. She swallowed half her glass and then set it aside.

  “I’m drinking too much,” she said almost regretfully.

  “Drink more. I like this on you.”

  She tilted her head and looked at me for a second. Then she picked up her glass and took another healthy sip.

  “I think I will enjoy it, thank you.”

  “You don’t need my permission.”

  “No, but I might need a ride home.”

  She giggled, and it sounded like a child’s, like someone who’d just gotten something they had desperately wanted. I loved it, loved the peace that had settled over her. It was beautiful.

  I could clearly see what Mitchell had seen all those years ago.

  “While I’ve got you to myself, I wanted to ask a favor.”

  “Hmm, is that why you’re liquoring me up?”

  I dismissed her joke with a simple wave of my hand.

  “I’m sure Kirkland mentioned to you what I did for that boy, Bobby Jensen?”

  “Yes. And I’m so proud of you. I’ve known the Jensens since I came to Midnight. They were at Mitchell Senior’s funeral.”

  “I was wondering if you would mind if I offered Bobby a job on the ranch to help pay back the restitution Gray Wolf is paying out on his behalf?”

  “I think that’s a brilliant idea. Not only will it teach him a lesson, but he’s a hard worker. We could use as many hard workers as we can get, especially those that won’t demand high pay.”

  “I was thinking I would offer him twelve dollars an hour, half to go toward the restitution and half to go to him.”

  “And you were going to make this offer on my behalf?”

  “I’ll pay it.”

  She shook her head. “I won’t hear of that. “We’ll put him on the payroll.” She brushed her hand over her jaw. “Maybe you should increase it to sixteen. His mother told me he’s going to a trade school next fall. He’ll need spending money for that.”

  I nodded, biting back the comment that I’d been hoping she would say that.

  “And you can tell him that the school board reduced the amount of the restitution to a thousand dollars. Turned out he didn’t do as much damage as they originally thought.”

  “I will. When he’s done paying it off.”

  She smiled. “You’ll be a good dad some day.”

  I wasn’t sure about that. My own father had been something of a taskmaster, always pushing us to do more and more and more. I didn’t want to be that kind of father.

  Our food came then, pasta for her and steak for me. We dug in, both of us apparently ravenous. But before I could enjoy more than two bites of that wonderfully delicious steak, I was a little shocked to catch a familiar sight in a mirror that decorated one wall of the restaurant. I turned, telling myself that I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was. But I was.

  Jonnie had just come into the restaurant with that guy… whoever he was.

  What was this? Was she moving on from me already? Who was this idiot in his expensive suit, helping her into her chair like he was some sort of gentleman from days long gone? Who was he to touch her shoulder like that, to get that look from her, like she appreciated him in a way she’d never appreciated anyone before?

  I felt sick to my stomach, so angry that I wanted to put my fist through something, preferably that guy’s jaw.

  “What is it, Hank?”

  I shook my head, but Sutherland craned her neck so she could see what I was looking at.

  “Isn’t that the teacher from the high school?”

  I got up, dropped my napkin on my barely touched meal, and charged across the room. Jonnie saw me coming and stood, her eyes narrowing slightly when she caught sight of Sutherland sitting at my abandoned table.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I was about to ask you the same question.”

  She gestured to the man who’d also climbed to his feet upon seeing me coming.

  “This is Paul. My former fiancé.”

  That’s all I had to hear. She didn’t even bother to tell me when she was done with me. She just moved sideways, dropping me to go back to her ex. No text. No phone call. No fucking warning at all. I studied him for a long second, then my eyes fell on her.

  “I’d say it was nice knowing you, but that would be an overstatement.”

  I saw the pain and the betrayal dance in her eyes, and saw how hurt she was.

  She had no idea.

  I walked out, was nearly to the outside doors, not really thinking about anything, let alone the date I’d left abandoned at a table full of food I’d promised to pay for. But then someone grabbed my arm and I turned, ready to start swinging.

  He ducked just in time, barely missing getting my fist up against that glass jaw.

  “You really are a cowboy, aren’t you?”

  “Better than being a entre… whatever, like you.”

  “I’m a lawyer.”

  “Oh, yeah? Just perfect!”

  “Listen, this isn’t what you think it is,” he said, lowering his hands as if he thought I’d cooled off enough that I was no longer interested in hitting him. “I came to town without letting Jonelle… Jonnie know that I was coming. I didn’t want her to refuse to see me.”

  “Why are you here?”

  He shook his head, lifting his arms as though the answer was just out of reach. He seemed a little reluctant to speak, his eyes dropping to my still balled-up fists.

  “If I tell you the truth, will you knock my teeth out?”

  “I might.”

  “Fair enough.” He took several steps back, crossing his arms protectively over his chest. “I came here to try to get her back. I came here assuming she’d be miserable and ready to go back to the world she left behind.”

  Exactly what I was afraid to hear. What could I offer Jonnie that this man couldn’t? He had everything: money and success and everything men like me could never aspire to. Why wouldn’t she go back to him?

  “But she’s not unhappy here. She told me outright that she’s not interested in going back to Austin. I think the only reason she came to dinner with me is because she feels sorry for me.” He snorted a little, looking down at his own shoes like a man who really couldn’t understand what was happening around him. “If I was a smart man, I would have listened to her years ago, would have heard her when she told me how miserable she was with her parents and her life. If I was smart, I would have come here with her.”

  It was my turn to
speak, but I didn’t know what to say.

  “If I was a smart man, I wouldn’t make assumptions about her. I get my ass in there and apologize for being a jealous fool.”

  “And you?”

  He held his hands out in front of him again. “I think I’ll go back to my hotel and see what kind of room service they offer.”

  He started to brush past me, but I was the one to reach out and grab this time. I pulled him back from the door and studied his face.

  “How long were you engaged to her?”

  “We met when she was in college. We got engaged two years ago, but she left eight months ago.”

  “When were you supposed to get married?”

  He cocked his head slightly. “In three weeks.”

  “You were engaged when she left Texas?”

  “Yeah.”

  “When’s the last time you saw her?”

  “When she threw her engagement ring at me and told me I was just like her controlling, manipulative parents.”

  I let him go. He straightened out his suit jacket in a show of indignation. Then he was gone, disappearing through the door before I could say or do anything else. I stood there for a long moment, not sure if I should be pissed still or relieved. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy that the woman whose bed I’d shared last night had never bothered to tell me she’d been engaged. But, again, there were things about me I hadn’t had a chance to tell her. Yet, I’d never been engaged.

  I crossed the little lobby and turned into the dining room just in time to watch Bodhi Archer approach Sutherland where she sat close to Jonnie, their heads close together as they whispered to one another. Bodhi knelt beside the two women, resting his hand lightly on the back of Sutherland’s chair, and said something I couldn’t quite hear. And then he held out a rose to Jonnie that he’d taken from the vase on his table. Then he was gone, winking at me as he breezed out of the restaurant.

  “What was that all about?” I asked Sutherland.

  She had a deep blush on her cheeks and a smile like nothing I’d ever seen before. She gestured toward Jonnie.

  “I think you have more important things to worry about, love.” She touched my arm. “Take her home. I’ll call Shelby to come get me.”

  “Sutherland, I—”

  “This is more important, Hank. Talk to your lady friend. Work this out.”

  I looked past her to Jonnie. She had her back to me, her shoulders sloped from the hurt and anger she was struggling to deal with. I nodded, the anger dissipating as the need to make that hurt go away took control. I walked over and took her hand, pulling her to her feet before she could argue with me.

  People clapped as we walked out of the restaurant.

  Chapter 14

  Jonnie

  “My dad’s dying,” I blurted out as we crossed the city limits sign heading back into Midnight.

  Hank hadn’t looked at me since he deposited me in the front seat of his Jeep Wrangler. He looked at me now, his eyes shadowed by the darkness seeping in through the windows.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “He sent Paul to retrieve me so that I could go home and help him tell my mother the truth.”

  “Are you going?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Why not? Don’t you think you should see your father before he dies?”

  I looked out the window and studied my reflection as it shown back at me between the streetlights. I was still absorbing the news. I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to do. I’d become content with the idea that I would never see my parents again, but knowing my father was dying changed things. I wasn’t sure I could turn my back on that.

  “Why did he think you were miserable here?”

  I snorted. “Because my family believes it’s impossible to be happy without a bank account with six or seven zeros in it.”

  “It’s about money?”

  “It’s about a lifestyle.” I glanced at him. “They cut me off when I left Texas, assuming that one act would bring me back.”

  He gripped the steering wheel a little harder. Maybe he’d assumed I was an heiress and he would get himself a nice little piece of the fortune if he hung around me. Maybe I’d just broken all his plans.

  I adjusted my position in the seat and continued to stare out the window.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  That stopped me a moment. “What?”

  “I didn’t finish my dinner, and you didn’t even get a chance to order. You must be starved.”

  He was thinking about food? Now?

  I wanted to kiss him.

  We pulled into the Dairy Queen and ordered through the intensely slow drive thru. He pulled the car into a parking spot at the back of the lot, turned outward so that we could see what was happening in the restaurant. We ate without talking, devouring the surprisingly tender chicken fingers and crispy fries like it was the best caviar in all the world. And when that was gone, he handed me the best chocolate milkshake I’d ever tasted in all my life.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I had a fiancé,” I said. “I knew that I should tell you, but there never seemed to be a good time.”

  “We’ve known each other all of, what, two weeks? I’m sure you would have told me eventually.”

  “I would have. I promise.”

  He glanced at me. “There are things about me you don’t know. Things I might never tell you even if we were to get married and stay together for fifty years.” He touched his shoulder where his Green Beret tattoo was hidden under his dark blue button-down shirt. “No one can ever truly know everything about another person.”

  “But a fiancé…”

  He smiled a little. “Yeah, that’s kind of important.”

  “Did you have one?”

  “No. Never been engaged. Came close to living with a woman when I was young, but that’s about as close as I ever came to commitment.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Meredith.” He made a face like the sound of her name falling from his lips was unpleasant. “She was my high school girlfriend. We dated all through high school, the stereotypical couple. I was the captain of the football team, and she was the head of the cheerleading squad. Everyone assumed we’d get married, settle on my father’s ranch, and raise a dozen kids. Even I did, I suppose.”

  “What happened?”

  He shrugged. “She decided I wasn’t ambitious enough. That I couldn’t give her the life she wanted without a high school diploma.”

  “She’s sounds like a bitch.”

  Hank snorted as he tried to hide a chuckle. “She was… opinionated.”

  “How could she say you weren’t ambitious enough?”

  “I probably wasn’t back then. I dropped out of school to help my father. I didn’t apply to any colleges, and the idea of going into the military hadn’t yet floated across my radar.”

  “Don’t make excuses for her. You are so well read! I wish half my students were as interested in reading great literature as you.”

  “Yeah, well, reading a few books to pass the night isn’t really ambitious.”

  “But it expands your horizons. It opens up new worlds to you. It changes the way you look at the world around you!”

  “Okay,” he said, laughing openly now. He reached over and took my hand. “I didn’t tell you so that you could get so worked up!”

  “I just don’t like the idea that someone treated you so badly.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “I was in a war zone for nearly eight years. A lot of people treated me badly.”

  “That’s different.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Is that why you were so angry with me? Did you think I was looking down on you like she did?”

  “Maybe.”

  I groaned, throwing myself back against the seat. “People suck.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  We were quiet for a few minutes. Then I gave him a little bit of a side eye. “You were jealous,” I said.

/>   “What?”

  “You were jealous. When you saw me there with Paul, you were jealous.”

  “I was angry.”

  “You were jealous. You want to be my boyfriend.”

  He laughed. “You sound like you’re in high school.”

  “It’s true, though. You want to be my boyfriend. You want to do what we did last night again.”

  His eyes seemed to take on a new sparkle. “I thought that was pretty obvious.”

  “Oh, so you leaving before bothering to wake me to say goodbye was supposed to tell me that you were eager to come see me again? And you walking out of my classroom before I could tell you who Paul was is supposed to make me feel committed?”

  “I walked out because you looked cozy.”

  “It was the most awkward hug I have ever experienced in all my life! How could you look at that and assume I was getting cozy with some guy?”

  “I don’t know. I just… I didn’t like what I saw.”

  “Because you want me.”

  He chuckled lowly in his throat, shaking his head. “Really, Jonnie—”

  I didn’t wait to see what he had to say. I put my shake down and climbed over the console to settle in his lap. He didn’t push me away or try to stop me. In fact, his hands came up over my hips, tugging me perfectly into the angles of his lap.

  “I like you, too,” I said, brushing the hair away from his face. “I want to get to know you better, and I want to see where this will—”

  He kissed me, stopping the words before they could finish rolling off my tongue. I buried my fingers in his hair, a little surprised by how curly it was when it hadn’t been trapped under a hat all day. He was intensely handsome, this man, dressed in a button-down shirt with a pair of dark slacks. I’d never imagined he’d look better in formal clothing than he did in his jeans, but he did. He looked so hot. When he came toward me in the restaurant—even though I knew I was in trouble—I couldn’t stop thinking about how good he looked. Hot like a model on one of those stupid billboards in Times Square.

  My boyfriend was as hot as Marlon Teixeira.

  He slid his hands under the short hem of my simple blue dress, sliding it up toward my waist. And his mouth—hot breath burning my sensitive skin—moved down over my chin, his teeth nibbling at the soft skin of my throat. He woke a fire deep inside of me, a fire that had been burning from the moment I first laid eyes on him in my classroom. I wanted his touch more than I could describe, wanted him inside of me like he was a part of me that was meant to always be there, a part that I couldn’t survive without. I wanted to feel truly alive, and there was this voice in the back of my mind that told me he was the only way I would ever feel that way again.