Taming Deputy Harlow

by Jennifer Morey

  “Brave, bold words for a man who will lose the woman he loves as a consequence of such foolishness.”

  Jamie didn’t doubt Stankovich would kill Reese. If he believed Jamie would never hand over his evidence, he would kill her. He operated in the cut-and-dried. If there was no evidence, then he would view it as having nothing to lose by killing someone important to Jamie. That way he still won a part of his warped plan.

  “You have twenty-four hours.” Stankovich walked to the elevator car and opened the metal gate. “Don’t make me stay down in this hole any longer than that.”

  Jamie went into the elevator car and started the lift upward. At the top, he left the mine shaft and took out his phone. Stankovich was slipping in his evil ways. Why hadn’t he taken his phone from him? So he could stay in contact with him?

  As soon as he stepped out into the rubble of the charred house, Jamie heard and saw several black SUVs slide to a halt on the snow-packed driveway, clouds of snow billowing up.

  As soon as his son had been taken, Kadin had called in the cavalry. How had he gotten them here so fast?

  Kadin jumped out of one SUV, his wife out of the passenger side.

  “You move fast.”

  “You helped. All the operatives you’ve been hiring agreed to meet and stay in Never Summer until this situation is resolved.”

  Penny rushed toward them from around the SUV. “Where’s Clayton?”

  Jamie got down to business, explaining to everyone where Reese was being held and who guarded her and where Clayton was. He drew the layout of the mine in the snow with a stick.

  “They’re going to hear the elevator,” Jamie said.

  “We’ll go down silently.” One of Kadin’s men lifted his hand and gave his finger a twirl, which must be code for rappelling equipment.

  “I’m going with you,” Jamie said.

  “We’re all going.” Kadin turned to Penny. “Except you. We need someone to stay topside as a lookout for more of Stankovich’s men.”

  Penny didn’t respond right away—a mother intent on getting her child back safely had taken her over.

  Kadin stepped closer, putting his hands on her arms. “I will bring him back to you.”

  With that she blinked and pressed her forehead to his chest. Then she lifted her head and Kadin kissed her.

  “Stay out of sight just in case,” he said as he backed away. When she nodded, he said to the team, “Let’s gear up!”

  * * *

  In his harness, Jamie rappelled down after Kadin. The team had set up a pulley to lift them out. If he had his way, Stankovich and his cohorts would be stuck down in the mine. If they survived this raid.

  Jamie’s headlamp shone on the volcanic rock that had been drilled out to install the elevator. He lowered down the middle of the shaft and probably moved faster than the elevator had. He saw Kadin’s headlamp and looked up before his feet touched the top of the elevator car. Kadin aimed his high-powered automatic rifle into the open area where Jamie had last seen Stankovich.

  Dots of moving headlamps showed the progress of the rest of their team. Quite an impressive feat, how the man mobilized rescuers, how he predicted the need for them.

  He stepped out of the way as the other men reached the elevator, joining Kadin in standing guard.

  When all the men stood on the elevator car, Kadin pointed to himself and then two other men and then the tunnel where his son had been taken. Then to Jamie and the remaining two down the tunnel where Reese had been taken.

  Jamie jumped down from the top of the elevator car and started toward the tunnel where he’d last seen Reese. Kadin stopped him with his hand on his shoulder. “Bring my daughter back.”

  “I will.” His certainty of that met no bounds.

  Jogging to the tunnel, Jamie stopped in the darkness with his two special operatives. Ahead he could make out the outline of the rock walls and some of the ribbing of timbering supporting the tunnel from collapse. He heard talking but couldn’t discern what was being said. Two voices. No others had joined her since he’d left.

  One of the operatives moved forward and put his back to the wall, rifle raised and ready to fire. The second operative tapped Jamie’s shoulder.

  Jamie turned and saw the operative looking down the dark tunnel. He saw nothing, but heard the approach of several men. In seconds they’d be upon them. Stankovich must have had them waiting in the third tunnel, just out of sight in case Jamie planned a return like this.

  The second operative had caught on to what was coming and just as a half-dozen armed men emerged from blackness, he jumped out and fired at Reese’s guard. Moving behind one of the large log supports, Jamie saw the other operative do the same.

  He started firing at the group and the operative across from him did the same. The men took what cover they could in the open tunnel and fired back. Bullets hit the log trunk. The operative across from him moved to fire. Jamie fired with him and the second operative’s rifle began to go off between them. Their automatic weapons overpowered the men who’d approached. Jamie ran up the tunnel, making it around the turn and putting his back to the wall behind another log support. He saw Reese bound and sitting on the ground, Holcomb shot and either dead or unconscious, sprawled on the ground a few feet from her.

  “Hurry,” Reese said, stretching her neck to try to see around the curve in the tunnel.

  While the operatives finished fighting off the attackers, he went to her, going down on one knee. “You’re safe now.” There was no time to express his great relief to find her unharmed.

  He slid out a knife from a strap at his thigh and cut the tape from her wrists. She sat away from the log, wincing from being tied at an unnatural angle for too long. He removed the tape at her ankles and helped her to her feet. The two operatives came to stand before them.

  “The tunnel is clear, sir.”

  “Jamie,” he corrected the man.

  Gunfire and shouts from the other tunnel brought them all turning. Kadin’s fight couldn’t be heard over theirs, but now that they’d taken the tunnel, it became clear that it wasn’t over.

  * * *

  Reese ignored her aching muscles when she heard the gunfire. She ran after Jamie and the two strangers—where had they come from? She followed the sound of their running feet to the open area, but slowed as they entered the next tunnel. She was not armed. She walked to a log beam, more timber forming a rib here, as well. She peered into the tunnel, gunshots ringing out along with shouts, some in pain.

  Carefully, she moved forward. The ribbed log structure ended at a wider section of the tunnel. Men fought beneath strings of lights that had been hung, illuminating long tables with white linens and candles, bowls of fruit and platters of cheese. Bottles and glasses of wine, some empty and some partially full, sat abandoned, as though a party had been interrupted. A refrigerator and a television fastened to a rock wall ran off humming generators. A veritable food court had been set up here. Cots lined the tunnel beyond. She heard a crying baby and spotted the outline of a baby in a blanket on one of the cots.

  Tucking herself behind a log, she watched as Jamie and the men quickly subdued Stankovich’s soldiers, sending one crashing into a log support. The log gave way, falling to the ground. She heard the wood above crack and break, as crumbling rock sagged and a few fine granules fell.

  Stankovich was not among the captured. Seeing a gun lying near a fallen man’s hand, she took it up. Just before she turned to go in search of him, she caught sight of another fallen man.

  Kadin?

  “Dad?” She jumped over bodies as she ran past tables.

  Reaching the edge of the cot where Clayton lay crying, she flew to Kadin’s side. He lay unconscious, bleeding from a wound to his head and oozing from a gunshot wound to his back. He’d been compromised in his determination to
reach his son.

  One of the men went to the cot and lifted Clayton.

  “Jamie!”

  “Someone call for help!” Jamie yelled.

  “Already radioed,” one of the men answered.

  Crouching beside Reese and checking on Kadin, he pressed a hard kiss to Reese. “I’m going to find Stankovich.”

  But as he straightened, two men were roughly manhandling Stankovich, who eyed Jamie in contempt.

  Jamie walked to him and punched him in the face. Stankovich’s head rocked backward.

  Reese felt the unprovoked punishment justified and inwardly cheered, but she was more concerned with Kadin. Her father.

  She kept pressure on Kadin’s wound. “Wake up.” She couldn’t lose him now, not when she’d only just begun to understand what it meant to have found him.

  A piece of wood crashed down from the timbering, loose rocks tumbling down after it. Their only way out had begun to crumble.

  When Jamie paused to look, Stankovich rammed his elbow back into one of his captors and shoved the other. He bent to produce a knife from his boot.

  “You think you can take me down?” Stankovich growled.

  More rocks fell from where the log ribbing had failed.

  “You’ll do that on your own.” Jamie blocked a swipe of the knife and then used his pistol to hit Stankovich.

  “We have to get out of here!” Reese shouted.

  Stankovich stumbled back as timber cracked, explosions of breaking wood creating a domino effect. Rock began to fall in a roar.

  Two of the men lifted Kadin and began running with him through the tunnel, dust and dirt flowing after them. Reese ran beside them, seeing Clayton ahead in the arms of another man.

  She glanced back to see Stankovich lunge for Jamie again. She stopped. But Jamie blocked that attempt as well and then knocked the man in the head, sending him down to the ground.

  More beams failed. Bigger rocks crashed down.

  Jamie started to go for Stankovich, but the ceiling began to fail. Stankovich yelled with his arm raised as though that would protect him from the boulder that crashed down on top of him, silencing him forever.

  The ceiling above Jamie began to crumble. Smaller rocks sprinkled down.

  “Jamie!” Reese screamed. They had to get out of there.

  He ran toward her. More rocks and boulders fell from the matrix of mined earth, splintering the big logs as though they were twigs. When Jamie reached her, she ran with him hand in hand toward the elevator.

  Someone had lowered the elevator car. Reese heard it along with the roar of caving rocks behind them. Dust engulfed them as they all ran onto the lifesaving lift.

  The men carrying Kadin put him down on the floor and the elevator began to ascend. She coughed along with others as dust filled the elevator car, barely audible along with crashing rocks. But the car raised and the air began to clear. Light from above grew brighter.

  Endless moments ticked painfully by as she looked at Kadin’s still slack face. How could such a powerful man be taken down this way?

  All of Stankovich’s men had certainly perished in the mine. Stankovich was dead. She, Jamie, Kadin and Penny had nothing more to fear from him, and yet it seemed so awful that so much life had ended.

  Kadin’s couldn’t.

  The elevator stopped and the metal door creaked and clanked open.

  Penny rushed in with a wail, seeing her baby was all right in the arms of one of DAI’s newest security officers. She fell to Kadin’s side and pleaded for him to wake up.

  Reese leaned against the side of the elevator, meeting Jamie’s eyes. He knew what losing Kadin would do to her.

  Chapter 16

  Reese sat beside Jamie in the ICU waiting room. Kadin had been flown to the Montrose hospital and was now in surgery. The room had framed photographs of beaches that seemed out of place and inappropriate. Who could think of something as pleasant as being on a beach when someone close might die? Magazines cluttered tables and it smelled stale, like many people had come and gone and left only their germs and bad breath behind. It was an awful room. Even with new furniture and clean walls and floors, what it represented made it awful.

  Penny paced from one end of the room to the other, rocking Clayton to sleep. She held herself together amazingly well, but Reese had no illusion what not knowing whether her husband would survive did to her on the inside.

  Jamie gave her hand a squeeze, as he had a few times already.

  The shock of her biological father facing death had shaken her foundation. She sat in a daze, unable to think of anything else other than he could die and what would she do if he did. The realization struck that she did want him in her life. That hug he’d given her had mattered. Jamie had worked his magic, as well. He’d loosened her rigid resolve regarding the course she’d chosen. It had all seemed so simple before. Go to college. Get a job as deputy sheriff. Get promoted. Be sheriff someday. She had not once included anything personal in those plans, and now she could see her mistake.

  Being raised by distant parents who’d provided well for her and had taught her to provide for herself and function socially had brought her success, but little else. There had been acts of affection and caring but not what she’d call genuine love. Knowing Jamie and meeting Kadin had shown her what she was missing, and that it was all right to include a personal life in her plans. There was nothing wrong with including Kadin, Penny and Clayton in her circle. In fact, they would enrich her life, make it much more fulfilling with love.

  She wanted the chance to experience that.

  What about Jamie? She liked looking at him, but the zing that came with it set her off balance. She didn’t know what to do with all the feelings he brewed. Was it love? She didn’t know. But she needed to. She couldn’t give herself completely to him until she decided what she would do. Stay with him or end the relationship? Maybe she just needed a little more time. She didn’t have to plan on when she’d find a man to share her life with, but she needed to understand her feelings.

  Jamie caught her next glance his way and his eyes conveyed care and concern, which he didn’t verbalize.

  If only he could read her thoughts.

  A doctor emerged into the waiting room.

  Penny’s softly said, “Oh.”

  Reese stood and went to her side, imagining the sheer panic shooting through her right now. Little Clayton began having his own conversation, staring up at his mother, tiny brow going low with the basic understanding that she was upset.

  Jamie came to stand beside Reese as the doctor reached them.

  “He’s going to be all right,” he said right off. A Native American with John Lennon glasses and thick, short dark hair, he was on the tall side and lean.

  Penny’s shoulders shuddered and she let out another, longer “Oh,” then leaned down and kissed Clayton’s forehead.

  Reese shared her relief.

  “The bullet passed all the way through above his heart and lung. He’s very lucky that way. Actually, the blow to his head had me more concerned. Being unconscious for so long, I wasn’t sure of the extent of his injury. But he woke up before we started surgery, angry over where he was. He’ll have a concussion for a while and a few stitches, but that’s it.”

  “My husband doesn’t like to be a victim,” Penny said, brushing her auburn hair behind one ear.

  “He’s no victim, I assure you.” The doctor laughed. “For a moment I thought he’d perform the surgery himself.”

  Penny smiled.

  “He was shot in the back,” Jamie pointed out, leather jacket draped over his arm, taller and younger than Doc. His stubbly face and blue eyes confiscated her gaze again.

  “He’ll awaken soon. A man like him, sooner than most. You can go and see him now.”

 
Walking alongside Jamie, Reese followed Penny into an elevator. On the way up to the floor where Kadin now recovered, she moved closer to Jamie when he put his arm around her waist. Penny didn’t even notice. She bounced up and down as she rocked the child and was clearly trying to relieve her anxiety.

  She walked the fastest down the sterile hall, arriving at the door and bursting inside.

  Holding the door, Jamie let Reese in before him. She stopped and waited for Penny to have a moment. Holding her son with one arm, she touched Kadin’s face.

  He opened his eyes.

  “Kadin.” Penny cried and leaned over to kiss him.

  When she straightened, he reached up and put his hand on his son’s head, intense love glowing from his weary eyes as they traveled up to Penny.

  After a touching reunion, Kadin looked at Jamie. “I will never be able to repay you.”

  Jamie and the men had saved Kadin and his son.

  “It wasn’t just me.”

  Penny moved away when Clayton began to fuss. She went to a chair on the other side of the bed and sat. Kadin watched for a moment and then turned to Reese.

  She went forward, going to the bed. When he opened his hand to her, she put hers there.

  “Our family is whole again,” he said.

  “What kind of drugs do they have you on?” she quipped, and not very successfully.

  “I mean it,” Kadin said. “You’re my daughter. I’d like us to spend as much time together as we can.”

  She wasn’t a kid anymore, but the lightness in her heart told her the truth. “I’d like that, too. And someday I’d like to call you my father.” She just wasn’t ready yet.

  “Take all the time you need. Is when I’m released from the hospital long enough?”

  He was better at joking than her. “You won’t be in here long. The doctor says you’re feisty.”

  “Kind of like you?”

  She smiled and glanced at Jamie, who grinned crookedly. “I can be rather stubborn.”

  * * *

  More than a week later, the DNA results came back, confirming Darius Richardson was indeed Virgil Church and the man responsible for killing Eva and Paula. Jamie went with Reese to the Church residence to inform Lavinia of Virgil’s arrest. When they arrived, Lavinia invited them in for tea and told them Virgil had left her and she had no idea where he’d gone.