Gray Wolf Security: Wyoming

by Glenna Sinclair

  “So, you can pin these break-ins on him? I don’t think so.”

  “It could prove him innocent.”

  The man stopped cold, his son’s hand locked in his. The kid started pulling on his father, trying to tug him up to the house, but he wasn’t going anywhere. The wife came out on the porch and the kid ran to her, throwing his arms around her knees.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Go in the house, Jill.”

  She hesitated, her eyes resting on my face for a moment, but then she did as she was told. Parsons turned back to me, his eyes narrowed as though the sun were shining right down on him like a spotlight.

  “Why aren’t you looking for those little bastards who attacked Jonnie Frakes the other night? Why are you wasting so much time on these damn break-ins?”

  “I’m just doing my job, Dan.”

  He came back down across his lawn, stopping just short of standing in front of me and just before it would have looked like a confrontation.

  “Justin’s a good kid, man. He’s got a raw deal with that father of his, but he’s pulling it together, working hard to get out of this damn town. He wouldn’t risk it all with these crimes.”

  “Did you know that there have been seven similar break-ins at schools the football team and the basketball team have visited over the past year?”

  “Half the football players are also on the basketball team, not just Justin.”

  “Did you know?”

  The man looked away, answering my question with that simple movement.

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

  “It’s a huge deal. We need to find out who’s doing this before the police put it together. Once the police get involved, it’s over.”

  Parsons stepped back slightly. “I heard what you did for Bobby Jensen.”

  I waited a moment for that to sink in. Then I asked, “Does Justin ride the team bus home from these games?”

  The coach shook his head. “He drives himself. Both ways.”

  “How many students do that?”

  “Just Justin and a couple others. Frank Cuddy and Robert Hadley.”

  I nodded. “Any players ever get a ride with Justin?”

  “No. These kids, they have special permission because they have jobs on Saturday mornings. They drive so they can go straight home after a game since we tend to spend a long time at whatever place we go to for dinner afterward.”

  That was all I needed. It painted a picture that even someone sympathetic to these kids—someone like Coach Parsons—could see clearly.

  “Thanks,” I said, turning to go.

  “Look, I can see what this implies, but these are good kids.”

  “I know.”

  “They wouldn’t do this.”

  I paused, remembering Jonnie’s argument to that effect.

  “Even smart kids fuck up from time to time.”

  I got in my Jeep and took off, hoping Parsons wouldn’t go straight into the house and call each of these boys to warn them I was on my way.

  Because I was on my way.

  ***

  Kirkland came into the study as I wrote down Hadley’s address.

  “You have something?” he asked as I slammed the phone book—yeah, we still have phone books—closed.

  “Just an idea.”

  “Want to share it?”

  “Not really.”

  Kirkland stepped into my path before I could leave the room. “We are a team here, Hank. I can help you with whatever you’re working on.”

  “Is that why you went to talk to the football coach alone?”

  He cocked an eyebrow, frowning at me. “The only way you could know that is if you went to talk to him, too.”

  “You had no idea what questions to ask him.”

  “And you did?”

  I tilted my head slightly. “Maybe.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say another word. He simply stepped back and let me go.

  I went to Frank Cuddy’s place first, but being a Saturday afternoon, he was out with his friends. Robert Hadley, however, was one of those kids who appeared to be popular because he was a starter on the football team, but he was really just allowed to play because there was no else willing to take his spot. He’d just come in from work and was covered in mud from the rain that recently dampened down his father’s pasture.

  “You drive yourself to and from the football games?” I asked him.

  He studied me from the front steps of his parents’ house. There was a struggle going on there, a desire to be a loyal friend mixed with fear that it was already too late, that I already knew more than I was letting on. I was hoping he would go with the latter, that he would slip up and tell me something I could use.

  “My dad likes me to be home early because he needs my help around the ranch.”

  “Do you ever go out with Justin Karl or Frank Cuddy?”

  “We all drive. Sometimes we’ll stop and get a bite to eat together.”

  “So, if I gave you a list of dates, you could tell me if those were the nights you stopped to eat?”

  Robert shrugged, turning slightly as a deep blush moved over his face. He was so clearly uncomfortable that I almost felt sorry for him. I’d known boys like him when I was in high school: the overweight boy who so desperately wanted to be a part of the in crowd. I’d bet that he’d never gone to one of these epic parties I hear the football team throws several times a year. I’d bet this kid hadn’t even had his first taste of beer yet.

  “Is that a yes or no?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t really keep track.”

  “But I bet your dad does. I bet he knows exactly which nights you were home later than you should have been.”

  The boy’s blush deepened, making me wonder if maybe he was on the verge of a heart attack. Could a seventeen-year-old kid have a heart attack?

  “You’re not going to talk to my dad, are you?”

  “Not if you tell me the truth.”

  The kid crossed his arms over his chest after glancing behind him to make sure neither of his parents was paying attention or sneaking a look or two out the front windows.

  “We don’t always come straight home. Sometimes, Justin’s dad will pay for us to go out to eat, buy us a burger or two.”

  “Yeah? Anything else happen while you’re getting those burgers?”

  He shook his head a little too emphatically.

  “What about the nights someone broke into the school here? You know anything about that?”

  “No!” He stepped back like I’d touched him with the hot end of a cigarette. “I’m not involved in that.”

  “I didn’t say you were. I was just wondering if you knew that Justin and Frank were the ones doing it.”

  The boy’s face completely changed as I spoke. The color drained, and he seemed to grow a few inches shorter. It had just been a hunch, but I could clearly see that I was right on the money. They were using him as an alibi.

  “What do they do? Take you to the Dairy Queen and then pretend to go off to the bathroom?”

  His chin fell against his chest for a second. Then he nodded, nearly imperceptibly.

  “The same with the away games? They buy you dinner so that if anyone asks, you can say the three of you stopped for a bite?”

  “They said they were going off to meet some girls, but they didn’t want their parents to know the truth. It seemed really harmless.”

  “But that’s not what they’re doing.”

  He shook his head. “I know.”

  “Why didn’t you tell someone?”

  “Because they would destroy my life! They’d push me off the team and spread some awful story about why.” He shook his head again, clearly mortified by the idea. “I can’t have that happen!”

  I walked up the steps and laid a hand on his shoulder. “You realize that you’ve made yourself an accomplice to a crime, right? T
hirteen crimes?”

  The blush came back. “Justin told me we’d never go to jail because we’re minors.”

  “Justin isn’t a lawyer, my friend.”

  The kid’s face crumbled. He began to cry big crocodile tears that ran down his face in streams. I hugged him because I didn’t know what else to do, but I had my evidence. Now all I had to do was convince Jonnie that turning these kids in was the best thing we could do for them.

  Chapter 21

  At the Ranch

  Kirkland paced the room, clearly annoyed. Sutherland watched, stealing little glances at Mabel from time to time. She was staring at the computer in front of her, clearly not disturbed by her husband’s agitation.

  “He should have told me what he knew.”

  “Does it matter? He solved the case. That’s what you told him to do.”

  “But we work as a team.”

  Sutherland didn’t want to argue with him, but she knew Hank better than him. It was hard for Hank to trust. It was a long time before he trusted the men in his squad when he was first sent to Afghanistan. She remembered Mitchell telling her stories about how Ash and Kipling wanted to have him reassigned because he was so determined to work as an individual. But Mitchell drew him out and earned his trust. Mitchell helped him come to the conclusion that they all had his back no matter what was going on around them.

  Some things are difficult to let go of. Hank saw himself as Jonnie’s protector, as the only person who could keep her safe. He cut Kirkland—even her—out of the loop because he was driven by this need to be the man Jonnie needed him to be.

  Sutherland understood it. She didn’t agree with it, but she understood.

  “That boy is going to the police today. They will probably arrest the other two by the end of the week. I think that’s a check mark in the win column.”

  “It is,” Kirkland agreed. “But Hank has to learn how to be part of a team if he’s going to continue to be an operative for Gray Wolf.”

  And that’s where Sutherland had to put her foot down.

  “From what I understood of the contract I signed,” she said, standing from behind her desk, “all major decisions regarding the day-to-day operations of Gray Wolf Security’s satellite office here on my ranch are mine. You, as much as I appreciate your guidance, are simply here for that. Guidance. Whether or not Hank remains an operative with the firm is up to me.”

  Sutherland left the room before Kirkland could respond, but she could feel both his and Mabel’s eyes on her. She didn’t care. She was used to making the hard decisions.

  She stepped out onto the porch and found her daughter playing on the wooden deck with Kirkland’s son, Matthew. Five years old, he already looked like a perfect clone of his father. He even talked like him. Elizabeth adored him, a fact that worried Sutherland. What was she going to do when the Parishes went back to Santa Monica?

  Hank pulled up to the front of the house in his Jeep, a kid with dark hair and haunting dark eyes in the passenger seat beside him. Bobby Jensen. He looked so much like his mother, it was hard to mistake him.

  “I just wanted to bring Bobby around and introduce him to everyone,” Hank said as he approached the porch.

  “Hey, Bobby,” Elizabeth said, waving to him from her seated position. Bobby smiled when he waved back.

  “Everyone knows everyone around here, Hank,” Sutherland reminded him.

  “Not everyone.”

  Unbeknownst to Sutherland, Kirkland had stepped out onto the porch behind her.

  Kirkland stepped down into the yard and held his hand out to the teen. Bobby shook his hand, looking up at him like he was wearing a halo or something.

  “Mr. Stratton told me what you did for me, sir,” he said so politely it almost hurt. “I can’t tell you how much my family and I appreciate it.”

  “It’s what we do for family,” Kirkland said, glancing over at Hank. Hank simply inclined his head, not rising to the bait.

  “Well, I promise to work hard and pay you back.”

  Kirkland just nodded. Matthew ran down the steps of the porch and threw his arms around Kirkland’s legs. He picked the child up, tossing him into the air briefly before holding him close against his chest. Sutherland never seen a man so in love with his child before, but she could see it wasn’t a rare phenomenon. Hank’s face was covered with envy until he turned his gaze onto Sutherland’s daughter.

  Mitchell would have been an awesome father. But Hank was proving to be a pretty impressive stand in.

  Chapter 22

  Hank

  I stood close to the security exit gate, picking at my cuticles as I waited for Jonnie to appear there. When she called and said she was coming home early, it was a mixed blessing. I so desperately wanted to see her, but I didn’t want her here when the cops arrested Justin Karl.

  I was going to have to break the news to her. But first, I just wanted to hold her.

  She stepped through the gate, and her face lit up when she saw me standing there. She ran to me, jumping into my open arms. I kissed her roughly, loving the taste and the feel of her. She felt like heaven.

  “How did it go?” I asked her sometime later as we drove back to her place in Midnight.

  “Better than I ever imagined. My mom already knew, and they were both so nice to me that it felt almost wrong, you know?”

  I reached over and took her hand. “Will you be going back?”

  She nodded. “They want me to come for Thanksgiving next month.”

  “Good.”

  “Will you come with me? I need a little sanity while I’m with them.”

  I leaned close, offered her a gentle kiss, pleased that she was assuming we’d still be together in a month. I wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to look too far in the future. It seemed like a good way to jinx happiness. But I was glad she was one of those people.

  When we arrived at her house, she noticed the flickering candles before she was even out of the car.

  “Did you?”

  I helped her out and escorted her politely up to the front door as she stared down at the candles that dotted the front walk. Then I pushed the door open and she gasped, clearly pleased with the number of roses and carnations and lilies that filled her living room.

  “I didn’t know what your favorite flower was, so I just bought everything I could think of.”

  “Hank!”

  She walked through the room, her fingers brushing against petals and leaves and the beveled edges of vases. Then she came back to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

  “This is most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

  “There’s more.”

  I pulled her hands away, keeping one to lead her into the dining room. Dinner was set up on the table, a bottle of wine chilling in a bucket off to one side. There were warming dishes giving off an awesome aroma, filled with roast beef and slow cooked vegetables and mashed potatoes seasoned with the perfect amount of garlic.

  “You didn’t.”

  “No. Sutherland was kind enough to set this up.”

  She shook her head. “You are full of surprises, Mr. Stratton.”

  I helped her into her chair and tried to pay attention to the meal. The problem was, I couldn’t take my eyes from her face. She talked almost the entire time, but I couldn’t remember a word she said. All I could think about was how desperately I wanted to take her into the bedroom and strip her of the dark dress she was wearing.

  Until she mentioned Paul.

  “He was there?”

  “He works with my dad, so he came over a couple of times to go over legal stuff with him.”

  “That must have been awkward.”

  She shook her head. “Not really. I think we’ve finally found some sort of equal footing.”

  I nodded. “I guess that’s good.”

  She tilted her head slightly, a big smile thinning her full lips. “I love it when you’re jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous. Just… surprised.”
>
  “You’re jealous.”

  I shook my head, but she got up from her chair and came to me, crawling into my lap as I pushed back from the table. She pulled up her skirt, allowing me to see the secret she’d kept from the moment she got off that plane: she wasn’t wearing underwear. My cock jumped, my balls tightening with a sudden burst of need. I ran my hands over her bare ass, my fingertips sliding inside full crevices that hid the secrets only women could possess. She sighed, moving her hips as she encouraged my touch.

  “This is only for you,” she whispered as her own hands slid over my head, moving slowly down to my throat and the top of my shirt. She began to unbutton it, anxious to find the flesh hidden underneath. And this time, it wasn’t quite as hidden as it had been in the past.

  “Only for you,” I said as she discovered my lack of undershirt.

  She laughed, but then I lifted her and balanced her on the edge of the table. She stole my lips as my hand moved around to her belly, sliding slowly down between her beautiful legs to the thick, swollen lips of her beautiful, bare cunt. She sighed, moving her hips up toward me, encouraging me to fill her in that way she loved so much. And I was so ready, so full of need that I couldn’t think of anything else.

  The dinner was destroyed, mashed potatoes spilling as I tugged her closer to me, forcing her to lay on her back. I thrust inside of her, loving the look in her eyes and that I had full access to the entire length of her body. I shoved that damn dress up and over her breasts, bending down to nibble at a nipple, loving the feel of it between my teeth. She sighed, arching her body up against me, offering herself completely to me. I worked my jeans out of the way and filled her, loving the groan that slipped from between her lips. We moved quickly, too quickly, aware there was time for patience later. She was so vocal, so anxious to take everything I had to offer. And when she rode the final wave, when pleasure became almost more than she could take, she cried words I had never heard fall from a woman’s lips that were meant for my ears.

  “I love you.”

  Oh, hell! How could I tell her now?

  Chapter 23

  Jonnie

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Hank and the flowers that still filled my living room. He stayed with me all night, held me even after sleep became too strong a spell to resist. And when I woke in the morning, he joined me in the shower, even drove me to work, his goodbye kisses lingering as we stood outside my classroom door.