Bodyguard Father

Thank heavens she wasn’t still tied up in the house.

She moved deeper inside until she backed into a ladder and then she climbed. The ladder emptied into the loft with an open hay door through which moonlight shone. The loft was full of straw and what looked like old tarps. She knew she couldn’t use the flashlight. Was the straw deep enough to burrow into? Wait, she had a kitchen knife. She could stab someone.

Before the other one shot her dead?

Caught in an agony of indecision, she approached the hay door, able to see only the night sky from her vantage point. The scene outside looked so peaceful. The moon high, clouds drifting in front of it, snow glittering on the tops of tree boughs.

There was a part of her that felt sure she could explain herself to those two men and hitch a ride out of here once they found Garrett had already left. There was a part of her that wanted this interminable day to be over, that couldn’t quite believe these men were the murderers they sounded like.

They move as though they’ve slithered through the dark a hundred times before. Use your head, Annie.

The voices, when they came again, sounded even closer. She moved toward the edge of the hay door in able to scan the ground. One of the men stood in the open doorway of the cabin, the other stood on the front porch. The cabin light illuminated them both. One was a huge, bald brute, the other shorter with straight dark hair and a twist to his mouth that seemed more sneer than smile. They both wore overcoats and polished shoes and looked as though they’d just stepped off a city sidewalk.

“He’s not in here,” the bald man said from the cabin door.

“He hasn’t been gone long, though. The fire’s still burning in the stove.”

A moment of silence, followed by, “Torch the house. That should cover our bases. I’ll check the barn.”

Annie ran to the ladder. She had to escape the barn right now. If they planned to burn down the house, the barn might be next. Her foot had touched the second rung when she heard one of them holler, “Skye? If you’re in there come on out. There’s no use hiding.” He stepped inside the barn, gun held out in front.

Had he heard her? She stood perfectly still, hoping the shadows hid her foot on the ladder.

“He’s not in the barn,” the man said, his voice softer as though he had turned away to speak.

The other thug moved into view. Thanks to the flaming piece of wood he held in one hand, Annie could see the top of his dark head through the open spaces on the ladder. Apparently he’d taken care of his arson job and brought the means to start another fire. As they continued talking, Annie slowly raised her bottom foot and shifted her weight on the ladder.

And once again fought the desire to announce herself and take her chances.

“Looks like he got away.”

“Burn this place down, too. It’s unlikely he left it, but you never know. Time we start back to Reno.”

“Without Skye? And what about the girl? There’ll be trouble—”

“We’ll stake out the Reno place tomorrow. We’d better get out of here before someone calls the fire department.”

Annie glanced to the hay door which now glowed with light given off by the flaming house next door. She glanced back at the men who both turned and walked out of the barn, one of them still carrying the makeshift torch. Maybe the plan was to let the house fire catch the barn. At the last moment, the flaming wood came sailing back into the barn where it landed against the new bales of hay Garrett had bought that morning. The bales instantly caught fire. Annie raced across the loft.

The men had stopped to look at the car/truck wreck at the top of the drive and she caught herself just in time at the hay door. “Go away,” she muttered, willing them with her desperation to get in their car and drive off before the fire caught the straw in the loft.

And as if hearing her, they threw one last look toward the cabin and barn, then circled the wreck and got in their car. Annie barely heard the slam of doors and the revving of the engine over the increasingly loud roar of the fire.

She raced back to the ladder to find it engulfed. She’d have to jump which would mean a broken leg. Could she crawl to safety with a broken leg? No. She couldn’t jump twenty feet. She needed a rope. She could shimmy down a rope. She had gloves to protect her hands. She began tossing hay, looking for a piece of rope while knowing it was unlikely one would be hidden under loose hay or old tarps. She’d lost the knife somewhere.

Smoke rose in the barn faster than the flames and she doubled over, coughing.

“Annie!”

She straightened up, listening.

The voice came again, louder this time. “Annie! Where are you?”

She ran across the loft to the hay door, shielding her face with her arm. “Up here!” she yelled. Was that Garrett’s voice? But he’d been gone so long….

“I see you,” he yelled.

Annie peered through the smoke. She finally made out a big bay horse and the man astride it. Her heart rate quadrupled as adrenaline pumped through her body.

“Jump,” Garrett called.

Jump? What, like the Lone Ranger from the top of a giant rock onto the willing back of his noble steed, Silver?

What’s your option? Jump now as a human being, wait another moment and jump as a shish kebab.

“Here I come,” she screamed, and taking a few steps back, dashed for the hay door and sailed into the night like a kid plunging into a cool lake on the hottest day of summer.

KEEPING SCIO CLOSE to the burning barn took all Garrett’s concentration. The horse was terrified of the flames and smoke and who could blame him?

Where was Annie? Why didn’t she jump?

He heard her yell something and looked up in time to see her flying through the night air, almost in slow motion, until she landed in his arms and Scio, as though sensing it was okay now to do what common sense had been urging him to do from the beginning, took off down the hill.

It was tense going for a few moments as the horse gave in to his panic, the woman slipped forward on the horse’s neck and Garrett fought to keep one hand on her and the other on the reins. It was dark down among the trees and the footing was uneven. He couldn’t see where they were going and was left to trust the horse’s ability to avoid trees and ditches.

They reached the bottom of the hill in record time. As the land flattened out, the horse began to slow down. Eventually, Garrett was able to pull Annie closer to his chest and wrap an arm around her waist. The awful feeling she was about to slip from his grasp to be trampled underfoot lessened. She held on to the saddle horn, though he saw during flashes of moonlight that she’d also grabbed a healthy handful of Scio’s mane and twisted it through her fingers.

He regained control of the horse before the highway. As the sound of thundering hoofbeats retreated, another noise filled the night air: sirens, in the distance, on their way. He looked through the trees, straining for a glimpse of the top of the mountain. A few feet farther on, they’d cleared all the trees and he was able to reign Scio in. They both turned in the saddle to look back.

The burning house and barn crowned the hill as Ben Miller’s cabin and barn went up in smoke. An explosion followed by high flames announced the fire had spread to the car and the truck. The only thing to be thankful for was that rescue equipment was on the way and the fire wouldn’t engulf the whole hill.

He heard Annie groan. “Are you okay?”

She turned even farther until they were nose to nose. All he could see was the twinkle of ambient light reflected in her eyes. She smelled strongly of smoke.

“Am I okay?” she repeated. “I am so not okay it’s not funny.” And with that she turned back around and started coughing.

Once she’d stopped, he said, “What happened back there?”

“A couple of guys came to see you. They were annoyed you weren’t home so they burned down your house.”

“Shelby Parker’s men?”

“I think so. They knew about me.”

“The police—”

“Trust me, they didn’t call the police.”

He got off the horse, caught Annie as she slid to the ground, got back in the saddle and, lowering a hand, grabbed her arm and helped her swing up behind him. She tucked her hips as close to his as possible and wrapped her arms around him. As they continued on, her head rested against his back though her grip on his torso never loosened.

Scio’s hot breath created a cloud of vapor in the moonlight as his hoofs cracked through the icy snow. Garrett admitted to himself it felt good to have Annie plastered against his back. Too good. To ward off increasingly erotic thoughts, he concentrated on what he should do next.

The first thing was easy—get as far away from the hill as possible. But the horse had had a traumatic time of it and was now carrying two adults. Garrett didn’t dare ask Scio to do more than amble along.

Keeping off the road, they rode for another mile. As they were riding away from town, the sounds of sirens grew fainter. Garrett could think of only one place to go and that was Joanna’s. He could leave Scio with her and from there, Annie Ryder could call her husband for a ride back to Reno.

And he could disappear.

Never to see Megan again? He couldn’t bear to think about his little girl so he put her out of his mind.

Other than a few strings of twinkling Christmas lights around the windows, Joanna’s house was dark. The barn was dimly lit, however. He paused by the big bell she kept on a post outside her house and rang it. When no answering lights went on in the house, he gathered she was gone for the evening and allowed Scio to head for the barn.

Joanna’s horses greeted them with whinnies and curious tosses of their heads as they peered out of their stalls. Garrett rode to the center unsaddling area. He helped Annie dismount before getting off the horse himself. Annie stood right next to him for a moment, knees shaking, though whether it was from riding, fear or injury, he didn’t know.

“Are you hurt?” he asked her, thinking he needed to turn on brighter lights and make sure she wasn’t bleeding anywhere.

She looked up at him, eyes blazing, bandages still stuck to her sooty face in a trio of places. He expected a slap or a tirade or something equally hostile. Instead, she stood on her tiptoes, put both arms around his neck and pulled his head down closer to hers.

“Thank you for coming back for me. You saved my life,” she said, and with that, planted her lips on his. The wild kiss that followed chased away the fire and the night.

She was soft, she was feminine, she was small and she was fierce. When her tongue touched his, his hands slipped down to cup her rear. He almost lifted her off her feet.

Maybe it was what they’d been through together that day, maybe it was the odd circumstances of their getaway, maybe it was the fear of loss and the joy of not being dead. Whatever it was, he was ready to make good on that kiss and tote her off into the hay. Except…

He clasped both her wrists and pulled away. “Wait a second,” he said. “You’re married.”

“That didn’t seem to faze you earlier tonight,” she said with a few warm kisses against his throat.

“Earlier tonight I was never going to see you again.”

“I’m not married,” she said.

“But the car is registered to Jack Ryder.”

“My father. Recently deceased.”

“I’m sorry.”

She said, “You shouldn’t be. If he hadn’t died, you’d be riding back to Reno with two thugs, names unknown.”

He had no idea what her remark meant, but the wistful smile following it piqued his interest. He’d known she was pretty from the moment the bad wig slipped off her head, but standing here in the half light, her coppery hair shimmering, cheeks flushed, peachy lips curved just the tiniest bit, she looked breathtaking. Despite the smoke. Despite the bandages.

Once again he considered his options.

“Who’s Joanna?” she said.

“I need to hear about the thugs,” he answered, returning to the business at hand. There was no time for impulsive lovemaking with a stranger hired to get him. What was he thinking?

“Why did you come back for me?”

That question was a hard one to answer and best delayed. He said, “Joanna owns this place. She boards Scio for Ben Miller during the winter. Speaking of Scio, he’s had a hard night.”

“So have I,” she said, stepping back.

He released his grip on her delicate wrists.

“Why did you come back?” she asked again, head tilted, hair falling softly around her heart-shaped face, eyes inquisitive.

He thought for a moment, then walked away.

Chapter Four

“You said there were two thugs,” Garrett said an hour later.

They’d taken his duffel into the tack room and hunkered down to talk. They had a few granola bars, bottled water, a couple of apples he’d packed at the cabin, plus her cell phone, camera and her dad’s gun.

They’d rubbed down Scio after his walk. The big bay gelding, now locked into a stall, munched on hay, a blanket secured on his back. He looked cleaner, drier, and better fed than either one of them.

Annie stretched out her legs and took a bite of a Golden Delicious. Though the stall was plush by barn standards, it was still drafty and cold. What she wouldn’t give for a shower and realized with a start that she still had a room at the motel in Poplar Gulch. That meant clean clothes!

“Annie?”

“Sorry. Okay, two men drove up. They cracked a few jokes about the wreck at the top of the driveway then went looking for you. They said you’d probably killed me and buried me on the hill. And then they laughed.” It still made her tremble deep inside.

“What did they look like?”

Annie described them: one bald, one a smiling man with a single eyebrow.

“Sounds like they were distinctive,” Garrett said. “Do you know them?”

“No. Did they know about you? Did they know your name?”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone besides Shelby Parker know you intended to come to Ben Miller’s cabin?”

“Nope, and that means they know Shelby Parker, right? That means Shelby sent them instead of the police. Why?”

“I don’t know. I expected Klugg to try something like this, but what does Shelby Parker want with me?”

“Well, you did kill her mother.”

As soon as the words left her lips, Annie had one reaction followed by another. The first was a jolt of pure panic: she was munching on an apple while in the company of a killer.

The second reaction was just as strong. No, she wasn’t. This man wasn’t a killer, at least not in the cold-blooded way Annie suspected the two gangster-types who had burned down Ben Miller’s cabin might be.

“I didn’t kill her mother,” he said. “But I guess Shelby doesn’t know that. What I mean is why doesn’t she want me brought to justice? Why would she want me brought to her? To kill me herself? Isn’t that a little far-fetched? And wouldn’t she be concerned about your safety?”

“Beats me. Maybe someone tapped Shelby’s phone, maybe they heard she hired my father and were waiting to get a message that he’d found you.”

“I wouldn’t put anything past Klugg.”

“But they never mentioned the name Klugg, you know.”

He rubbed his temples.

“Who is this guy, anyway?”

“Klugg?” He finished off a granola bar, and brushed the crumbs from his fingers. “He used to be a boxer. He owns a string of health clubs now as well as a few gyms where people train. When two of his associates ended up dead, he was charged with hiring a hit man. Elaine was his attorney. He blamed her when he got a guilty conviction. First he fired her and then he started making threats.”

“What kind of threats?”

“The kind that make a person scared to go out in the dark. Someone followed her home one night, ramming her bumper, turning off their headlights and then there was a delivery of dead roses—stuff like that.”

“But you said Klugg was in jail.”

“Trust me, a guy like Klugg maintains connections on the outside. All he has to do is give orders.”

“Why would anyone think you’d kill Elaine Greason? What motive would you have had?”

He was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath. “I went to see Klugg in prison.”

“Then you know him?” She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.

“No, I don’t know him. What happened was this—he demanded a visit from Elaine. She didn’t want anything more to do with him. I was supposed to tell Klugg to leave Elaine alone or she’d get a court order. I delivered the message. The man stared at me like I was a piece of dead meat. The cops decided that meeting was when Klugg hired me to take care of Elaine for him.”

“Then the motive they settled on was—”

“Money. I heard they found an envelope of unexplained cash in my apartment after I left. It appeared I had motive, opportunity and the know-how because I worked briefly with munitions in the army. I was like the poster boy for this murder. Add to that the fact I got into a gunfight with Randy Larson when he tried to detain me, and it doesn’t look so good.”

“No,” she said, “it doesn’t. If you didn’t kill Elaine Greason and Klugg did then he’s going to want your mouth permanently closed.”

“Exactly,” he said.

For Annie, the euphoria of escaping the fire was being quickly replaced by anxiety. What was she doing in a world of murder and arson and assassins? She was a preschool teacher!

She thought back to hiding in the barn, to lurking in the hay loft, and suppressed a shudder.

“Tell me what else those men said.”

“It sounded as though they were ready to shoot me if they saw me.”

“I’m sorry I left you tied up,” he said. “It’s a good thing you’re such a pro at getting free.”

“Why would Shelby agree to that? What have I ever done to her?” Besides lie about my father’s condition, Annie added to herself. But no one was supposed to know about that.

“You’re apparently the only one who knows she’s out to get rid of me,” Garrett said. “But again, if Klugg is intercepting her messages, she may not even have gotten the one you left. It might have gone directly to him. When you met with her, did she say anything to suggest she wasn’t acting alone?”

Since Annie had never actually spoken with the woman, she shook her head. She got up and walked over to Scio, offering him the rest of her apple, glad to be out from under Garrett’s scrutiny for a second.

The big horse daintily sniffed the apple before nibbling from it with huge teeth. Annie handed it over, glad to escape with all her fingers.

“Did those goons say what they were going to do next?” Garrett said.

She turned to face him, standing with her back to Scio’s stall. She tried hard not to think about the many times she’d avoided death that night, but the harrowing memories were stacking up like planes over a busy airport. “When they decided to burn the house and barn,” she said, “I got the feeling it was to get rid of something. Not someone, something. Oh, and they said they would try the Reno place tomorrow. They said they would stake it out.”

Garrett grew very still. “The Reno place?”

“What does it mean?” she asked, stepping closer.

“The only place I had in Reno was an apartment at the back of Greason’s property. Even if it was still mine, they wouldn’t go there.”

“But it’s not yours anymore?”

“Of course not. A man doesn’t pay the rent for a man he believes blew up his loving wife.”

“I guess not.”

“Plus, he saw me shoot poor Randy. Trust me, Greason isn’t losing sleep worrying about keeping a roof over my head. And if two goons show up and he figures they’re in any way connected to his wife’s murder, he’ll have the cops there so fast…”

“How about your daughter? She lives in Reno.”

“But they don’t know her name. My ex took her maiden name back and I didn’t advertise Megan’s existence.”

“Did you tell Elaine or her husband about Megan? Might they have mentioned her to Elaine’s daughter?”

“They both knew about Megan, of course. I doubt I ever mentioned her last name, though.”

“Maybe I mentioned Megan on that damn phone message to Shelby Parker and if it’s true they’re intercepting her messages—”

“But you said you didn’t.”

“I said I couldn’t remember,” she corrected.

“Think, Annie.”

Events had been racing along at such a pace that Annie hadn’t really concentrated on what she’d told Shelby Parker before this. She bit her lip and took a few steps back and forth. “I told Ms. Parker you were in Poplar Gulch. I mentioned the name Ben Miller because I’d seen it on the mailbox and remembered it from your file.”

“My file?”

“Well—”

“Never mind, that’s how the thugs knew where to come look for me. Did you tell Parker how you happened to know about Poplar Gulch in the first place? About the picture of me in Ben’s truck taken outside my ex-wife’s house?”

Annie stopped pacing as her heart dropped to her feet. She faced Garrett. “Oh, my gosh, I did say just about exactly that. But I didn’t say her name.”

“Still, they know I have a daughter and an ex-wife.”

“If I’ve hurt your little girl because I was too stupid to remember this before, I’ll never forgive myself. I’m so sorry—”

Garrett reached for the cell phone. As he waited for it to power up, indecision stole over his face.

“What is it?” Annie asked, sitting down beside him again.

“I don’t know who to call.” He took out his pocket watch and checked the time. “It’s almost midnight.”

“I forgot your ex-wife is a dancer at one of the casinos. She’ll be at work.”

He looked up with alarm. “What else do you know about me?”

“Mother dead, father and brother in Oregon, infant nephew—”

“What? Infant nephew? Brady has a kid?”

“Named Nathan. And a wife. Former name Lara Kirk.”

“Lara Kirk? As in the Riverport Kirk family?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I wonder what else I missed.”

“Call Megan’s grandmother,” Annie said.

“You know about my ex-wife’s mother, too?”

“She’s a semi-invalid and watches Megan while your ex goes to work. Call her.”

“If I told her to take Megan away from Reno right now, she’d hang up on me.”

“Then call the police.”

“And tell them what?” He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “I’m a wanted man,” he said softly. “If Megan disappears into the system I’ll never get her back. But I can’t go to Reno—”

“Why not?”

“It might lead them to her.”

“But she needs you. I mean, apart from the fact she hasn’t seen you in months and to a little kid that’s a lifetime, there may be two really awful men on their way to her house. She needs you to protect her.”

He stared at the phone without answering.

Annie got to her feet. “What are you waiting for?”

“Listen here—”

“Are you going to leave your little girl to fend for herself until you get your life all straightened out?”

He glared at her a few more moments before saying, “If I don’t show up, Megan will be okay. The thugs will decide I’ve skipped and leave her alone. Once I show up, she’ll be in horrible danger. Just like you were tonight.”

“You’re walking away from your own daughter.”

“I don’t have a choice. It’s why I left Reno in the first place. Megan is safer without me hanging around. They may not even know she’s living under her mother’s name.”

“But they might. If my—if I can figure it out, so can they. How can you say she’s safer without her father? How can you be so selfish?”

She suddenly noticed he was standing, too. He took a step toward her, eyes murderous. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do,” she all but growled, her voice growing distressingly thick with emotion as her own past reared its ugly head in her mind. She took a deep breath. “I absolutely do know what I’m talking about. A little girl needs her father, no matter what. This isn’t just about you, it’s about her, too. Her mother stays out most nights and her grandmother resents babysitting and lives on painkillers, and her father is hiding—”