Caleb heard the racket as he disinfected the exam table, wiping it down and rerolling the paper.
Someone was yelling out on Main Street and whoever it was seemed damn serious about it. He hoped the noise didn’t disturb Holly. She’d had a long night and was probably ready for a nap after all that physical exertion. She didn’t need to listen to screaming. He was about to charge out and do some yelling of his own when the phone rang.
He needed a nurse, and maybe a receptionist. He hated answering the phone. He didn’t like cleaning up, either. He wouldn’t have any problem with telling his staff to reset the exam room after he’d fucked his wife on the table.
Caleb stopped. Holly wasn’t his wife. Holly wasn’t going to be his wife. Husbands slept with their wives. Husbands told their wives everything. He’d been a horrible husband, and he had no intention of wrecking Holly’s life. And Holly had a kid. He’d be a terrible father.
But Alexei would be a good one. Was he going to be able to watch Alexei get Holly pregnant and start a family? Would he be able to take care of her? There wasn’t another doctor for fifty miles. Even if he forced them to go to another doctor, there wouldn’t be an obstetrician. There weren’t enough people to support a specialist. They would have to go to Alamosa, almost two hours away. It was the precise reason he was the one taking care of the pregnant women in Bliss. He could send to them a specialist for specific appointments, but for the most part, their care fell to him.
He stopped and took a deep breath. He was borrowing trouble.
And he suddenly knew why he hadn’t hired a nurse. Deep down, he hadn’t expected to stay. He’d expected to move on because that was what he did. Even as a kid. He’d moved with his father and brothers between houses in Chicago and Washington and boarding schools, never making deep connections with anyone but Eli and Josh. He hadn’t even connected with Caroline.
He’d expected to get sick of Bliss and leave one day, but the place had wormed its way into his heart, warming him where he’d thought he’d had nothing left but cold.
He had to get his shit together. He loved Holly. Hell, he was even beginning to be fond of the big Russian.
He couldn’t leave. Not when he’d found his home.
And his home was really loud.
The phone continued to ring as though the person on the other end of the line knew he didn’t like to pick it up and wouldn’t take no for an answer. What was he thinking? He had to answer the damn phone.
He picked up. “Bliss County Clinic.”
“Hey, Doc. I was wondering if you were there. This is Roger.”
“Long-Haired Roger or Roger?” They got pissed when you confused them, and without the visual confirmation of hair, he found it difficult to tell them apart.
“Oh, this is Roger from the shop. I was calling about your truck.”
Ah, Long-Haired Roger. The bald one. “Got it. What’s the word?”
“Well, it’s the strangest thing. The brake fluid leaked out.”
He’d figured that out already. “And how did that happen?”
“Well, it looks like someone cut the line. Or it was a real careful critter. You know, sometimes monkeys can use tools. I saw that on a nature documentary the other day. But we don’t have any monkeys around here. And I don’t care what Mel says. I won’t believe we have a Sasquatch until I see him. And Sasquatch is probably really big. Someone would have noticed him under your truck.”
Long-Haired Roger, who might also be called Rambling-On Roger, continued, but Caleb didn’t really hear him. Someone had cut his brake line. Someone had tried to kill him and nearly gotten Holly instead. What the hell was going on?
“Leave the truck. The sheriff needs to see it.” He was going to have to pull Nate Wright into this.
“I already called him. I thought it was real odd. I know Holly was in the truck. Now, Caleb, I know you’re touchy, but I thought you liked Holly. Everyone around here is taking bets on when you’ll finally ask her out.”
He closed his eyes in frustration as he heard a siren go off. “I didn’t try to kill Holly. Holly is my…my girlfriend. Look, just fix the truck when the sheriff releases it and send me the bill.”
He hung up and walked to the door. The siren had gone dead, but he could see the faintest hint of red and blue lights filtering through the blinds. He prayed Nate hadn’t jumped to the conclusion that the town doctor wanted to murder his café crush. It seemed incomprehensible, but nothing was impossible in this town.
He couldn’t make out who was yelling, but they were damn serious about it. He put down the antibacterial spray and went out to the waiting room. The ivy Nell had left looked sad and lonely. It was the only bit of color in the white and gray room. He’d bought a painting because Holly had talked him into it, but it had been taken into evidence after the Russian mob incident, and he hadn’t looked for another since.
He lifted one of the blinds, hoping Nate wasn’t storming the clinic. The sheriff of Bliss stood in the parking lot, his hands on a woman’s elbows, locking her arms into a pair of not-padded handcuffs. What the hell?
Caleb strode out of the clinic, not bothering to put on his boots. He was happy he’d felt weird cleaning in the altogether, or Nate Wright might have been getting to see more of him than he wanted to. As it was, he’d only put on his jeans. He was sure he looked like a disheveled crazy as he jogged across the thin lawn toward the parking lot.
“Nate, what the hell is going on?”
Nate looked up, a frown on his face. “You know this woman?”
He turned her around. She was a slender woman with brown, plainly cut hair and yes, she was familiar. He searched for the name Alexei had called her. Jessie. She’d been with a dark-haired man. If he had to guess, he would have bet they were a couple. “I met her a couple of hours ago. I think her name is Jessie.”
She’d also been in Trio the night before. He’d noticed her. Her eyes had almost constantly been on Alexei, though she’d held hands with the man she’d sat with.
“Yes, my name is Jessie Wilson, and I was with Alexei Markov.” The woman didn’t plead. She sounded pissed off. “It’s kind of my job. If you will check the badge in my back pocket, we can clear this up.”
Nate nodded and Cameron Briggs came up behind the suspect. He quickly pulled a wallet from the woman’s back pocket and opened it up.
“The badge claims she’s Jessica Wilson, and she’s a US marshal,” Cam said as though he didn’t quite believe it.
“Sheriff, the aliens know all the best forgers,” a familiar voice said.
Caleb turned and suddenly Mel was standing beside him. The older man wore coveralls, a thermal shirt, and sneakers. He was never without his trucker hat. It was lined with heavy-duty tinfoil to keep the death rays away.
“She’s an alien?” It was a decent bet. Mel assumed most outsiders were aliens.
“No idea. I don’t think so. She doesn’t have the look. And I didn’t see her wearing one of the amulets the Els wear. She could be an Anakim. You would know them better as Elders. You see, the Elders are actually about nine to eleven feet tall, but they wear these amulets that molecularly condense them down to regular size. I don’t see the amulet. And she’s neither reptilian nor one of the Grays. I think she’s a real, live human asshole.” He turned toward Caleb expectantly. “Although we should probably check her just in case. You could do an exam. Check for a prehensile tail.”
Sometimes being the only doctor in Bliss county was a hassle. “I am not checking anyone’s tail, Mel. She’s human.”
“Hey!” Jessie’s partner ran across the street, holding his hands up in the universal sign for “don’t shoot me.” “My name is Michael Novack. I’m a US marshal. That’s my partner, Jessica Wilson.”
“I tried to explain to this small-town asshole that I’m doing my job. I was waiting for you when I saw someone playing around with that piece-of-crap Ford over there.” She gestured back to the parking lot where Alexei had parked Holly’s car.
Michael managed to convince everyone to let him pull his badge out of his pocket. He flashed it around. “We’re Alexei Markov’s handlers. We followed him when he left Florida because there’s still some danger to him. Even though technically he left the program, Jessie and I wanted to stick close to him until the appeals court hands down its verdict on two of his cases. We’ve been following him around. Though we’re supposed to keep a low profile.”
Jessie practically snarled at him. “Do not blame this on me. Alexei drove that car around all day. Was I supposed to let some asswipe mess around with it? He was suspicious.”
Nate turned to Mel. “Did you see this man?”
Mel shrugged. “I only saw her, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have missed something. She was under the car.”
Jessie groaned, obviously frustrated. “Because the man had run off. I’m not sure if he was a bad guy or not. I couldn’t exactly chase down a tourist who was tying his shoe. I had to check. I think he did something. It looks like there was something attached to the bottom of the car.”
The door to the clinic opened, and Alexei stood there. Caleb didn’t miss the way his right hand snaked behind his back. There was little doubt that his partner was hiding the gun he carried. Alexei reholstered the weapon and strode out. Caleb saw the slats to the blinds open.
“Holly, it’s safe. You can come out,” Caleb yelled.
“I tell her to stay in bedroom. Our woman needs her hearing checked.” Alexei caught sight of the marshals, and his face fell. He turned to Nate. “I can explain.”
Nate waved him off with a roll of his blue eyes. “I can take a wild guess. You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants long enough for the US legal system to work its way through all the fuckers you put in jail. The marshals are trying to keep you alive.”
“Alexei?” Holly walked up to Alexei, her feet bare and her hair still tousled. “Is that true?”
Alexei turned to Holly, his face grave. “That is truth, what sheriff say. Though I was going to grovel a bit more. I would not have come for you if I do not think is safe.”
“Well, we might have to rethink that,” Nate said as he uncuffed the female marshal. “I had a nice talk with Long-Haired Roger. Someone tampered with Caleb’s truck.”
Holly’s hand was suddenly in his. He heard her startled gasp. “Oh, god. Someone tried to kill me.”
“Or Caleb.” Deputy Briggs pulled out a tablet and started making notes. “It was Caleb’s truck. And now Holly’s car in front of Caleb’s clinic.”
“But I be driving car around.” Alexei’s accent had gotten thick again. Caleb was starting to get his tells. When Alexei got emotional, his accent was almost too thick to understand.
“You didn’t drive my truck,” Caleb pointed out.
“No. But I stand by it for almost an hour before I walk in yesterday morning. I watched Nell walk in. I was afraid to be talking to you. What if someone saw me and thought it was my truck? What if there is someone in town trying to get to me? What if they learn how much it would hurt me if they got to Holly or you instead?”
Caleb squeezed Holly’s hand, noting Alexei was holding her other hand. It felt right.
“Sheriff, she checks out.” Logan swaggered onto the scene. He seemed to have gotten control of himself, but there was a red rim to his eyes that bespoke of many nights’ lost sleep. “She is who she says she is, though her boss was surprised to find out she was in Colorado.”
Jessie took back her badge. She shoved it in her pants and glared at the sheriff. “We’re doing this under the radar. I think it’s too early to take him out of the program. Look, we spent a lot of time with the big guy. He was supposed to settle down in Boca Raton under the name Howard Solev. He had all his papers. He was supposed to be a recent immigrant working for a security company. We worked hard to set up a safe life for him. Imagine our surprise when he disappeared. I knew he had someone he cared about here. Arrest me for giving a crap.”
Nate stared down at her, giving her the same look Caleb had seen him give speeders and other minor irritants. “Look, Marshal, here’s what I know. I know that someone deliberately tampered with Dr. Burke’s truck.”
“Don’t let Long-Haired Roger discount my Sasquatch theory. I think they’re rising up against industry and big business, Sheriff. I don’t think they like gas-guzzling trucks,” Mel said seriously.
Nate’s expression never changed. “I will keep that in mind. Cam, be sure to place environmentally friendly Sasquatches on the board of suspects.”
Cam grinned. “Will do, Sheriff.”
“What is wrong with you people?” Jessie asked.
“Not a damn thing,” the sheriff replied. “Now, my second problem is that I have US marshals in my town who don’t do me the courtesy of informing my office that they’re here and working a case. Don’t give me that bullshit about caring about him. You’re carrying a gun, and you’re more than willing to use it. You owe me the courtesy of letting me know what’s going on.”
“Yes, we do, Sheriff.” Michael seemed to be the more reasonable of the two. “We’re sorry. We honestly didn’t think anything would happen to him. We’ve been keeping tabs on him from a distance. This town seems pretty good about protecting its own. We didn’t even have to step in when Ms. Lang’s son showed up. He almost immediately had six men on him.”
“I liked that part.”
Caleb looked to his left. Mick stood there with a cup from Stella’s. He took a long drag from the straw. Caleb noted that the Farley boys were with him.
Mick grinned at him. “Look, I made friends. They’re showing me all the cool spots.”
“Like the place where all the girls bathe naked because they think no one can see them,” one of the brothers said.
Mick shook his head. “Yeah, I wasn’t so interested in that one. And the nudists are way funkier than I would have thought. But I liked the Feed Store Church. And there were a couple of people miming their distaste for Wall Street on the square. That was pretty awesome.”
So that’s what Nell and Henry were up to this afternoon.
“What’s up with the feds?” Bobby Farley asked.
“They’re here about Alexei.” Will looked over and waved at the Russian. “Hey, man! We’re glad to see you. We need a coach for little league hockey. I should warn you, it’s only me and Bobby. You wouldn’t have much of a team.”
Alexei warmed immediately. “We do not need many peoples. We merely need to be meaner than the rest. This I can teach you. If I am not dead.”
Bobby looked to the sheriff, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yeah, the sheriff is worried about that, too. Though he also thinks it could be Holly’s ex-husband, because he’s a son of a bitch, or Caleb’s family. He has a whole board of suspects.”
Nate Wright’s eyes widened. “You two little shits. Did you bug my station house again? I swear to god, I am talking to your mother.”
Neither boy looked particularly intimidated. Will shrugged. “We didn’t bug the station house. We just invented a machine that amplifies sound. We didn’t even have to use the full range. You can be really loud, Sheriff.”
Mick pointed to both kids. “I love these kids. If only I’d had you on my side a year ago. But there’s no way Dad would hurt Mom. He’s a dickhead, but he wouldn’t hurt her.”
Just as Mick said the words, there was a horrific boom and fire shot to the sky. It came from the parking area not fifty yards away. The sound cracked, splitting the air with a terrible roar. That sound seemed to be everywhere—invading his consciousness and making the world seem unreal.
Caleb’s ears flared with pain. Too loud. And then everything was muffled by an odd ring. They would be ringing for hours.
Alexei leapt into action, covering Holly with his big body, and Caleb took the kids. He felt the blast from the explosion heat his skin as he tugged at the kids, trying to protect them with his own body. He covered Mick’s head with one hand and pulled the twins in with the other.
When it was over, he looked to Mick, who had lost his “perpetually amused with the world” expression. His eyes were wide with terror. He stood and tried to brush away the smoke that seemed to be everywhere. An acrid smell permeated the air.
Caleb was well aware he was speaking far too loudly as he talked to Mick. “Take care of the boys. I need to check on your mother.”
Holly’s son nodded and immediately took the twins under his wing. He moved them away from the site to the other side of Main Street. Logan was moving Jessie and Michael to the other side, too. Cam checked on Mel.
Nate was already on his radio. “Hope, get the fire department out here. Yes, we had a bomb go off. Try like hell to keep people away from the area.”
But they were already streaming out of homes and businesses. Well-meaning citizens were suddenly everywhere. Chaos. It was chaos. Caleb was far too well acquainted with chaos. Holly. He needed to get to Holly.
“I don’t think the Sasquatch did that, Doc,” Mel yelled. “They’re not real good with electronics!”
Caleb ignored him and moved to Holly. Alexei had her on the ground, his big body covering every inch of her. She was struggling beneath him, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Is danger passed?” Alexei asked, yelling a bit.
It was a good thing because Caleb’s ears were still ringing. “We’re good.”
It was also good to know that Alexei had her back even when she was fighting him.
Alexei let her up.
“Micky?” She looked around for her son.
He finally got his hands on her, assuring himself that she was all right. “He’s fine, sweetheart. I think we’re all fine.”
“My ears are ringing,” she said, calming visibly once she could see her son.
“Mine, too,” Alexei said, pulling at his ears.
Caleb slapped at his hand. “It’s tinnitus. It’ll go away. Don’t pull at them.”
Nate walked over. “I think we need to take this to the station house. Logan and Cam are going to stay here and see if we can get anything off the car—once it’s not a flaming ball anymore. We need to talk. All of us.”
Mick stepped up, his face white as a sheet. “I should come, too. I’m worried maybe my dad might be more involved than I hoped.”
“What?” Holly asked, taking his hand.
“Well, I might be blackmailing him, and he might be really pissed off.”
Yeah, it was definitely time to talk.
* * * *
Vince was almost ready to call it a job. A fucked-up job. A big, old pile-of-shit job. He’d never before screwed up the way he had in this town.
He trudged through the woods, cursing nature at every turn. Where had he parked his Jeep? He’d seen an opportunity to get at one of the vehicles the target used. It seemed to be the only car left between the three of them, and if he got one of the others, his employer was okay with that. Collateral damage.
But he’d been made. Oh, they might not know exactly who he was, but they knew someone was after one of the townspeople. It wouldn’t take them too long to figure out who was the target. They only had three fucking choices.
And the sheriff seemed much smarter than a local yokel. The whole fucking town was a bastion for former feds and conspiracy nuts, and every goddamn one of them had a gun.
Life was easier in New York.
He’d blown the car because he was afraid he’d left something behind. He knew he’d done a hack job on it, but he couldn’t get at the damn car while it was parked at the woman’s cabin. Last night had proven that. He’d watched as six huge men had shown up to take care of one skinny-ass kid.
No way. No how.
The parking lot of the clinic was away from the street. It was surrounded by a concrete wall. He’d watched the three of them enter the clinic after his botched attempt to take out the target with the car he’d stolen after hiding his Jeep on the mountain. He’d listened and heard the freaks all having sex. After deciding they would be occupied for a while, he’d decided to give it a go.
And that dumb bitch had found him. He’d barely gotten the device in place when she’d called out to him like they were old friends or something. She’d said hi and he’d taken off.
He’d barely made it over the wall when the sirens had started up.
He felt sick to his stomach. He wasn’t this guy. He wasn’t the guy who screwed up. He should never have taken the job. He should have known how many goddamn eyes would be on the target.
But he wouldn’t quit. He would simplify finish the fucking job. No more accidents. No more close encounters.
The target was getting a bullet to the brain the next chance Vince got.
He was going to end this.