I had called Petra. It was a risk since I had no idea where her head was at when it came to Leslie or me. But I gambled.

Lucky as hell for Leslie and me, Petra was on our side, and she knew how to handle power players like Antonio Maldonado. Where I would have burst in and busted up the place and probably gotten shot before I got to Leslie, she knew how to work a deal. She was great at it.

“You should have called me right away, you know.” Petra’s voice was surprisingly soft on the other end of the phone line. She seemed concerned about me. I’d been afraid I’d burned that bridge by putting her business at risk.

“I haven’t exactly been employee of the month.”

“That’s true Abe. That’s true. Well, the flash drive is safe with me. I can use the information, hopefully, to get our girl to safety.”

“Thanks. I don’t want them around me, none of it anymore. I’ve officially gone soft.”

“Well, I think what you’ve unearthed in Dubai will be a nice bit of insurance for me against Antonio if I need it.”

Unbeknownst to Leslie or Petra, I had broken another rule on The Marilyn Job.

I’d gotten the idea from Syd’s present to me, the grainy footage of Franco, and oddly from my own predicament.

 When I began to get the blackmail tapes, I worked on getting a little insurance of my own.

I’d recorded Franco and Dom doing their worst to women in that little hotel room of pain; it was an easy thing to keep cameras in play when I’d set them up for Vallin Industries.

I used my access as a bodyguard to spy on those two fuckers. Petra would have fired me if she’d known at the time. Just because they’d failed to get Leslie to play their game didn’t mean they were leaving the field.

My camera caught a lot BDSM and a bit of drug use, even abuse of women. And my footage was a hell of a lot clearer than what I’d gotten of Franco in Dubai.

I didn’t have evidence of murder, but still, Petra was the right person to have the information. I gambled that my extra insurance would come in handy when I needed it.

Petra could bluff with the best of them, and I took a chance that she could use the tapes of the brothers to get Leslie free. She probably could get other things she needed from the powerful Vegas family with the ammo I gave her. This was her game and she played it well.

“So it worked?” Petra had promised to call me when it was over. I could never have made it in time to Vegas. I had to rely on Petra.

“She is safe in the car you provided. By the way, is your brother looking for employment? I have a recent opening.”

“No, he’s doing just fine I think in his line of work.” Thank God Leslie was with Roosevelt, thank God. I didn’t want to think about what could have happened to her. I was having a hard enough time knowing she was with Roosevelt. That fucker was a sucker for a pretty face. Of course, I should talk.

 “So what about our other problem?” Petra got back to business.

“The blackmailing? Well, it was Franco and Donny behind it. Franco’s taken care of at least.”

“Donny’s the wild card, isn’t he?” Petra replied.

“Yeah, and he’s a gambler, he’ll need cash. He’s got more leverage if he holds onto that tape of me than if he turns it in, but since he’s alive, it doesn’t do him much good, does it?”

“No. But the Maldonados are going to be looking for Donny. Hard. I’m not sure what that means for you when they find him.”

“Hopefully, they kill him.”

“Yes, they’d be doing the universe a favor. So do I hear the wide open spaces of Montana in the background?”

“No, I’m in Morocco.” I looked around at the hundreds of acres, mountains, even a river. It was my land, as far as I could see. And it was Montana. I was finally here. But alone. I had thought I wanted that. I was wrong.

“So will you be moving our girl in?”

“I don’t think so. She’s got a Daddy to care for. I think that’s where Roosevelt was taking her. She needs to do what she set out to do.”

“Just like you. All presidents. Let me guess you’ve got a sister named Bush?”

“Nice. Thank you, Petra, for everything.”

“You are welcome. I will be keeping your number. There’s a short list of people I trust. And you’re on it.”

“I’m honored.”

We hung up. My cell service was sketchy out here, but I’d spied a tower one ranch over, and, for now, I had about three bars. I called Leslie’s cell, but there was no answer. I had no idea if she even had it anymore.

The second call I’d made after Leslie had given herself up was Roosevelt. My older brother was one of the meanest of us, almost as mean as Pierce, but he had to be. Mom had relied on him more than me in the beginning until he left. I knew he was in Vegas, and if I asked, he would drop everything.

I called him again now.

“So, did you drop her off?”

“Yep, safe and sound, watched her get on a plane. She’ll be close to Carter. I’d call him and tell him to introduce himself and keep an eye out for her while she’s there.”

“Wait. Carter?”

“Yep. Small world isn’t it, baby brother?”

“I guess so. Thanks, Roosevelt.”

“I’d say she’s way too good for you, Lincoln. And also watch that Lorenz asshole. He likes touching her. I’d put a fucking stop to it.”

“Yep. And you know, if you’re out this way. I have a shack but you can sleep under the big sky.”

“Maybe some other time, I’ve got a fee to collect.”  And that was it. We hadn’t talked in a year, and that was it.

I sat and stared at the phone. I was stunned at this turn.

What do you know? Carter?

Carter worked at the Billings Cancer Center. The hospital she’d picked for her dad was an hour away from my new ranch.

Was that a sign, that she had she taken her dad to Montana of all places?

 It made me feel somewhat at ease to know my youngest brother was on the case, even though he didn’t know a damn thing about her history. That was a good thing, I supposed. She needed to be free of it. Carter would check in and do what I asked, just like Roosevelt and Truman had. We weren’t much of a Hallmark kind of family but we got the job done.

Carter? She was headed to Carter’s hospital? She had chosen Montana for her Daddy. But still, she’d left.

I had no idea where I stood with this woman. But hearing that she was safe, that was enough. The bile that had twisted my gut since the moment I’d read that letter settled a bit. But I started to feel an ache in my chest instead. This being without her was impacting my physical body as much as my head.

The ranch would keep me busy, but it wouldn’t distract me from thinking about Leslie. I used to think the ranch would keep me happy. That was before I knew there was a Leslie before I’d been assigned The Marilyn Job.

All this thinking took me about five minutes. I made a call to Carter, and I made a decision.

***

Leslie got off the plane and rented a car. It was hard to stop looking behind her, and even her brief time with Roosevelt reminded her that she shouldn’t. She may be in the clear, but the Maldonados were dangerous, and her run-in with them was recent. She used a little makeup to get rid of the bruise Antonio had given to her. She hoped Petra’s threat was enough to keep them away from her.

But all thoughts of her time in Vegas fell away when she got to the Billings Cancer Center. It was beautiful compared to her Daddy’s last hospital, the prison. Zimmerman had gotten him admitted to the best program he could find close to Montana.

Yes, Montana. She didn’t have any right to think Lincoln wasn’t mad as hell at her. But she did what she did to save him. Would he see that?

When she walked into Daddy’s room, her heart leaped. He’d been there for less than a week and she could see the difference.

He was sleeping at first but stirred when she pulled up a chair next to his bed.

“Leslie, you look like Leslie again. Thank the Lord that hair is gone.”

“Daddy, hi. How do you feel?”

“Like ten miles of bad road.”

“Well, you look better than the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah, that’s because I used to feel like 100 miles of bad road.” She laughed, he was making jokes. That was the best sign she could ask for.

“That lawyer of yours was pretty slick. I didn’t like him much.”

“I know. But he was the best in the business, and he got you here.” Leslie put some ice chips in a cup and offered them to her father.

“You got me here. I know that.”

Leslie leaned down and kissed him on the head. “I’m so glad you are. So glad.”

“Now where’s that gorilla of a man you brought to the prison, Lincoln? I told him he better look after you and I don’t see him.”

“We’ll talk about Lincoln later. You need to rest.”

“You’re right about that. Go get something to eat. I don’t want you hovering over me. It makes me nervous.”

“Yes, sir.” The hospital was so clean and bright, and every nurse and orderly she passed gave her a warm smile. This was good. This was why she did what she did. Her sense of purpose was coming back. Saving Daddy had meant she had to be tough. And she was.

Despite her Daddy’s orders to eat, Leslie wasn’t hungry. She sat with coffee and her new phone in the window-lined hospital cafeteria. Her old one was somewhere in Idaho. Thrown out a window.

She turned it over and over in her head, debated with herself. She wanted to call one person. But it was selfish. She knew that. She was nothing but trouble, and Lincoln needed peace, the ranch, some quiet. She’d upended every plan he’d ever made.

“Leslie?” She looked up to see one of the most handsome faces in the world staring back at her. His kind blue eyes, longish blonde hair, and blue hospital scrubs made him look more like a soap-opera doctor than a real life M.D.

“Hi, I’m Dr. McCall.”

“What?”

“You know my brothers.”

“There’s a doctor? A McCall doctor?”

“Yep, thanks to Lincoln and Roosevelt, I don’t even have student loans.” He put out a hand to usher Leslie to a seat.

“So Lincoln sent you to check on me?”

“Yep. That’s Lincoln. I’ve also checked on your dad’s chart. It’s not a lost cause, you know.”

Leslie tried to answer but instead she had to hold back a sob.

“Oh, oh thank you. That’s the best news. Just the best.”

“But it will be a long haul. He’s very weak and needs a lot of treatment, and that will be slow. You’re going to be in Montana a while.”

“About that, you know I chose this place because it was close to Lincoln. How are you here?”

“Well, Lincoln chose his ranch after visiting me here. So there you go. It was all meant to be.”

“I guess so.”

“Now I don’t mean to tell you what to do, seeing as we just met, but can you do me a favor?”

“Anything, you gave me great news about Daddy.”

“Call my brother. He sounded awful on the phone, and now I can see why. The big dummy is worried sick about you or quite possibly has a broken heart. I can’t believe I’m even saying that.”

“I will Carter. In fact, I was about to.”

“Here’s my cell phone number.” He handed her a card. “Text me if you need me, need a place to stay, have a question about your dad’s treatment. Any friend of Lincoln’s is a friend of mine. And since you’re the first friend I’ve ever seen Lincoln have, I got plenty of time to help.”

Carter got up, and Leslie watched him walk away. He was maybe around Truman’s age and looked more like him than Lincoln; he was long, wiry, blondish, where Roosevelt and Lincoln were impossibly wide, all bulk and menace, much darker.

What a surprise these McCall brothers were. She was an only child and had no idea what it would be like to have connections like they did. She only had Daddy.

Unless Lincoln could forgive her.

So she dialed. There was a pit in her stomach. He had to be so angry with her. She’d done exactly what he’d told her not to do. She thought back to the times she’d forgotten to lock her doors, much less deliver herself to the Maldonados. She’d walked right into the line of danger, and she’d done it behind his back. Her reason may mean nothing to him. Bottom line, she’d left him.

The phone rang once, barely.

“Leslie, are you okay?”

“Hi, Lincoln. Yes, thanks to you, Petra, Lorenz and most recently Roosevelt and Carter.”

“It takes a village to keep your ass out of trouble.”

“I guess it does. Lincoln.”

“Yeah.”

She hesitated. She was afraid to ask questions because the answers could break her heart. She could hear Lincoln breathing. She wished she was with him. He couldn’t stay mad if she was in front of him. Could he?

“Are you mad at me?”

“No. I was never mad at you. I was just scared.”

“You were scared, that’s a new one. Lincoln McCall, scared.”

“Not really, I’ve been scared shitless since the moment I met you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re walking around holding my vital organs, all of ‘em, in your purse, and you’re always losing your purse.” Again, while sitting in the hospital cafeteria, she stifled a sob. She did not want to break down alone in a crowd. She just wanted to be with Lincoln. Her body ached without him near.

“Lincoln? Can you come get me?”

“I’m in the parking lot.”

“What?”

“When you want to leave, come on out.” And this time, she cried. Big, fat tears rolled down her eyes and into her coffee cup. She grabbed the coarse napkin and hid her face behind it. The people in this room must think she was highly unstable.

“Lincoln.” It came out through sniffles.

“What.”

“I love you. Can I slaughter your chickens for the rest of my life?”

“I love you too. Yes, you can. Otherwise I’d have to choke the chickens myself, and that’s fucking annoying.”

She laughed into the phone, well, honked was more like it. An ugly-as-hell, not-in-a-million-years-Marilyn honk.

He was here. He was already here. He was always where she needed him to be.

***

The hospital was less than an hour from Lincoln’s ranch, though as he explained, he didn’t have a ranch yet, just the land and a shack on it.

When they drove up for the first time, it was dark. Leslie couldn’t really see. She was also bone tired. Lincoln came around and lifted her out of the car. He carried her into the house.

“Is this a threshold kind of thing?”

“Sure baby, whatever you want.”

She looked around. They had a bathroom, a kitchen, two bedrooms and a small sitting room.

“It’s not quite a shack.”

“But close. Not much bigger than your duplex.”

“I’m guessing there’s a barn out there too?

“Yep, that’s five times the size of this place.”

“You’ll need mousers you know. And what’s your plan, what do you want to do next?”

“Take off all your clothes and get in bed. We’ve never done it in bed. It’ll be kinky.”

Leslie blinked at him and raised her eyebrows.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’ll build you whatever you want. How’s that sound?”

“It sounds perfect.”

“Wait until you see it in the daylight.”

“I can’t wait.” But she was no longer talking about the scenery.

Lincoln’s eyes grew dark, intent. Something had changed in an instant.

“Thank God you’re here with me, thank God.”

He hadn’t put her down and just squeezed the breath practically out of her. She kissed his head, his face. It was he who needed reassuring, protecting; it was the first time she’d realized it.

His heart was hers, and in that he was more vulnerable than she was. She was just beginning to understand the depth of his feelings. It was overwhelming and like a drug, intoxicating. He was one-hundred percent hers and would die for her before he would let anyone hurt her again.

Plus, he would let her have animals, a lot of animals. Thank God indeed.

“Bed,” she whispered to him, and they were there. It was a short walk.

Lincoln dragged down her jeans and she his, shirts flew to the corners of the room and they were both skin to skin, naked, together, with nothing to stop them, nothing in their way.

She gasped as he licked at her nipples, he gathered her breasts together and had them both in his mouth at once. The heat she felt was overpowering.

She slid her legs up and down the side of his. He growled into her neck. He felt down between her legs. She was ready for him; she didn’t want or need any more time. They’d been away from each other for too long, and there he was, inside of her. He filled her, deliciously filled her, the size of him a surprise every time.

 “I love you, Lincoln. I love you.” She said it as he rocked into her.

He didn’t speak, couldn’t speak, just growled again, nuzzled into her hair, neck, breasts, his hands roving all over her.

Home. She was home.